552 ADDRESSES AND STATE PAPERS

land's newly apportioned General Assembly enacted fiscal reform legis-
lation designed to relieve the financial pressures of the metropolitan
subdivisions. Through the provision of over $100 million in additional
direct State aid and the authorization of a local option income tax
up to 50 percent of the State rate, hard-pressed local governments were
guaranteed sufficient revenue and revenue resources to maintain and
expand vital services.

In addition, two particular metropolitan problems were attacked
through fiscal reform — crime and the need for compensatory educa-
tion. Maryland for the first time granted direct State aid to local law
enforcement agencies. Of the $16 million appropriated for this pur-
pose, over $9 million was allocated to Baltimore City in recognition
of its density and the intensity of its problem. Over $70 million in
additional State aid for education was distributed throughout Mary-
land. However, an additional and special $5 million was provided
exclusively for the improvement in program, staff and structure of
Baltimore's inner City schools.

Taxation may be used creatively at the local level to encourage
optimum land-use or coercively to discourage the exploitation of
blight. At the present time our urban assessment policies sometimes
promote speculation in slum properties by absentee landlords who
realize returns out of all proportion to investment and assessed valua-
tion. If substandard housing was assessed with a view to its potential
optimum rather than present value, the perpetuation of this type of
abuse would be readily checked. A permissive attitude in this area
means that the total community is not only condoning exploitation
but actually subsidizing the exploiter.

If we force the slum landlord out of business, the next obvious
question is: Can the community afford investment in necessary ex-
tensive low-cost housing? Certainly a society as affluent as ours can
afford some. Resident owner investment — subsidized if necessary by
Federal funds — such as Illinois Senator Charles Percy has proposed,
offers another constructive alternative. However, urban renewal in-
evitably displaces more people than it can accommodate and unless
the dislocated and displaced are accommodated, the project simply
stimulates the transfer of blight and impaction to another vulnerable
area.

Satellite cities pose a creative alternative. This approximates the

"New Town" concept advocated by your Inter-County Regional
Planning Council. New "instant cities, " however, must do more than