418 ADDRESSES AND STATE PAPERS

Q, Governor, if we could go to a subject that doesn't please any-
body, taxation again. It seems that your committee on business taxes
is leaning toward corporate income tax. A study released today by
the Chamber of Commerce of Baltimore, as you probably know,
throws that out also as a possibility. Have you done any thinking
about this as an eventual recommendation from your administration?

A. I haven't even seen any recommendations from the committee
yet, so I'd have to look at it first.

Q. What do you think of a corporate income tax increase?

A. I think they are here to stay. I thought you were going to say,
What do you think of a corporate income tax? I don't know. It would
have to be looked at in conjunction with relief from other burdensome
taxes affecting corporations, such as gross receipts taxes and the like.
I don't think that we're looking to put unusual burdens, additional
burdens, on corporations, but I do think corporate tax reform is a
subject that deserves the attention of the committee, which of course
is giving it that attention.

Q. Governor, do you think that in light of the recent State tax in-
crease and the proposed Federal tax increase that Maryland motorists
can afford to absorb 32 percent on their insurance rates?

A. I don't know. Do we have a reason to believe that what the in-
surance companies are asking for is going to be what finally comes
out to be the amount that the Insurance Commissioner feels is justi-
fied? I think, in the past, what's asked is usually not the same as
what is wound up as being authorized.

Q. Governor, do you think there should be a reexamination of this
whole area of automobile insurance, perhaps more deductible policies,
something that takes down the cost?

A. Well, I think this is something that every state insurance com-
missioner ought to be constantly reappraising, and be in contact with
the major insurance carriers in looking for ways to devise better pro-
tection at less cost to the public. I don't think there should be a spe-
cific study; I think the study should be going on all the time.

Q. Do you think President Johnson can carry Maryland in 1968?

A. I have no way of knowing. I would assume that any major
candidate, and particularly an incumbent, would be favored to carry
any given state at any given time.