STATE OF THE STATE MESSAGE 633

advocate complete repeal. I will submit a bill to abolish the authority
for imposition of the death penalty. However, for the protection of
custodial personnel and society generally the measure would allow
application of the penalty to a person serving a maximum life sentence
who is convicted of a capital crime committed while in custody, after
escape or while on parole.

I sincerely believe it is within the power of the General Assembly
to save many lives each year by enacting reasonable and effective traf-
fic safety measures. The issue of Implied Consent has been evaded
for years, even as our highway death rates soared and State Police
statistics attributed almost 50 percent of all Maryland traffic fatalities
to drinking and drunken driving. I am certain all of you are aware
of the dramatic reduction in England's traffic death rate resulting
from her new and stringent breathalyzer test. Our legislation —
which is neither as novel nor as stringent — can still succeed, and I
challenge you to give it a try.

I have already mentioned the need to complete the fiscal reform
started last year. The legislative-executive committee headed by Sena-
tor Harry Hughes has prepared a series of recommendations to im-
prove Maryland's business tax structure.

By relating taxation to income rather than inventory, Maryland
will be in a far better competitive position to attract and retain in-
dustry. Equity can be achieved for industry in much the same manner
it was for the individual and property owner last year, by basing taxa-
tion on profit rather than property.

In another critical area of tax revision, the Legislative-Executive
Committee on Highway Financing, known as the Redding Com-
mittee, has produced an outstanding series of recommendations affect-
ing State and local highway construction and maintenance. You have
received this complete report. I endorse all of its major recommenda-
tions, including replacing the present underfunded and overspent
"six-year program" with a more practical, open-ended five-year pro-
gram that can be updated every year; adoption of a new redistribution
formula for all motor vehicle revenues from a single fund instead of
the previous inequitable distribution of gasoline taxes; and increasing
Maryland's motor vehicle registration fees, presently among the na-
tion's lowest, by one-third to partially finance increased highway
costs.

Let me say at this point that I think the present State Roads Com-
mission has demonstrated remarkable progress in a single year as it