NEWS CONFERENCE 77

a minute. If all else fails, if we have no bill at all or we get one that
does not meet your satisfaction, would you call a special session?

A. Well, if the City were left with no alternative other than to in-
crease the property tax by a dollar or a dollar and a quarter or what-
ever the case may be, under an examination of the current conditions
at that time, I may be forced to do that. I would discourage forcing
us to be placed in such a position and I don't think the City is so un-
reasonable that it won't recognize my conviction and my sincerity
when I say I will not, under any circumstances, allow this earnings
tax to continue. It is the most regressive tax there is. It's a tax that
pays no heed to the burden on an individual taxpayer whether they
be burdens of dependency or catastrophe from casualty loss or medical
expense or whatever the case might be. It's a tax that doesn't even
relate itself to apportioning among the people using the service who
should pay for it. It's just a bad tax, and I will not continue it or
allow it to continue, if I have anything to do with it.

Q. Governor, have you ever thought about the suggestion that grad-
uation of the income tax might be increased?

A. I mentioned a while back that that seemed to be a proposal on
the other side of Hess-Warfield and I thought that the present plan
was the best one. That proposal probably has more merit than the
sales tax proposal because if the people in the higher incomes are
taxed at a higher rate the effective rate of their taxation is reduced
because of the State tax being a legitimate deduction from the Fed-
eral income tax. And I really haven't examined the effective rates of
taxation, taking the Federal tax into consideration. I'd have to do
that before I would say whether I think that that's a feasibility or not.

Q. Governor, on taxes again, last week a couple of members of the
Montgomery County Council were very outspoken in opposition to
your plan. They directed some of their fire toward what they said was

Montgomery County's feeling and didn't want to support Baltimore

City. They talked about crime rates in Baltimore City. Would you
address yourself specifically to this question, such as whether Mont-
gomery County and Frederick County shouldn't support Baltimore
City?

A. I think that the answers to those questions were excellently
framed in several newspaper editorials which point out very specifi-
cally that no county is supporting a city or vice versa. The tax burden
is falling on those who are most able to bear it. Admittedly it is not
a question of who uses the most services or who gets the benefit of