NEWS CONFERENCE 561

members of the committee felt were overly generous shares. So they
juggled figures around and made Baltimore City's share bigger than
the two suburban Washington counties, and in the process reduced
the shares for the thirteen other counties in Maryland. Do you have
any comment on this?

A. Well, first of all, I don't know whether what you have given me,
even though it accurately reflects what you may have heard, is what
really happened. I think it very unlikely that it did, and I will tell
you why I feel that way. The changes in the police protection formula
were anticipated even at the time the old formula was adopted, and
such criteria as the density of population were then said to be some-
thing we would have to look into. Now, the reason that I think the
property tax modification does exactly the thing in reverse of what
you would anticipate is that they're talking about returning now the
equivalent of 11. 6 percent of the property tax which would have the
effect of increasing Montgomery County's share rather than decrease
it. I suppose the balance of what's being done is simply a matter of
completion and refinement of the original reform, and I would think
that it makes good conversation for those who would stir additional
resentment against the tax reform to drop a hint that possibly this
is aimed at Montgomery County.

Q. It was more than a hint. There were direct statements. I was at
a meeting where it occurred and it was quite bluntly stated by Senator
Hughes, Senator Finney and several others that we can't sell this
in the Legislature; it's too generous to Montgomery and Prince
George's counties. And at that point they looked prohibitive.

A. Well, I think it's unfortunate that comments of that type would
be made because the tax reform was sold to the Legislature without
any regard to whether it favored or hurt these mysterious ethereal
figures known as counties. As far as I'm concerned taxes are paid by
individuals, and they're either poor or they're wealthy. And there are
a lot of poor ones in Montgomery County who are receiving some
benefit from the tax reform, and there are a lot of wealthy ones in
Baltimore City who are getting clobbered. So this generalization of
what a tax program does to a county is really something that fits into
the realm of the mystic, and it doesn't mean a whole lot except to
stir political hostility to the program.

Q. Governor, a couple of weeks ago you made some comments about
discipline in the high schools and junior high schools. What public
reaction, if any, have you gotten?