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paying taxes such as these in Fairfax
County out of farm income alone."
I submit the average farmer in Maryland
has a hard time paying his taxes out of
farm income alone. If you allow his assess-
ments to go up as the land speculator
moves in and causes the price of land to
go up, you are going to run him off the
farm completely. This is an important issue
to the farm counties of Maryland and I
urge you to support not only this amend-
ment but the one which will follow it and
will try to gut the proposition also by
changing the "shall" to "may" and to sup-
port the Committee's recommendation
throughout.
THE CHAIRMAN : Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak in favor of the amend-
ment?
Delegate Scanlan.
DELEGATE SCANLAN: I assure my
friends from the rural area that I have no
desire in eliminating the abuses which have
grown up in connection with the purchase
of agricultural property to throw the baby
out with the bath water by denying the ex-
emption entirely. So, we will give our
friends from the rural areas and Mr. Case
one last chance to show their good faith.
I ask Mr. Case whether on behalf of
his Committee would either accept the fol-
lowing amendment or state to this Conven-
tion that the proposal as is now before the
Committee of the Whole in 8.10-2 permits
and intends the following.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Scanlan,
Delegate Case does not now have the floor
to yield it. When he does have the floor, I
will permit you to ask him the question.
DELEGATE SCANLAN: Let me put it
in the form of argument. I, for one, would
recede from my support of the amendment
my opposition to the majority's proposal if
that proposal could either be read implicitly
to include the following or expressly by
way of amendment to include the follow-
ing: At the end, to add: "Provided that
classifications may be made which are based
on the principal source of income or upon
the principal occupation of the owner of
agricultural property." Short of that, I
suggest that their good faith is in question
and not ours for the urban areas.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Churchill
Murray.
DELEGATE E. C. MURRAY: Mr.
Chairman, fellow delegates, at least one
thing has been overlooked that has not
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been emphasized here. That is the plight of
the farmer is due primarily to his low in-
come in respect to his investment — his low
income in respect to his expenses.
I do not know a harder problem to solve
because of such complete justice in what
each Delegate has said. I do know this:
That if you want to keep the farmers on
the farm, you have to find some solution for
this. I do know that it would be most un-
fortunate if we have to return to the farms,
to the farming neighborhoods, and say to
them, we have provided that the legislature
can give you relief, but we have taken out
of the constitution the positive assurance
that you have previously had.
I find it hard to speak upon this because
there is so much injustice in the case of the
speculators and it is so extremely hard to
write anything that will protect the State
against the speculators. But I think that
we have got to find a solution to this bet-
ter than that of taking out what the farmer
has had and putting in a merely permissive
proviso.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak in favor of the
amendment?
Delegate Bard.
DELEGATE BARD: Mr. Chairman, I
do not know when I have given more
thought to a proposal than this particular
one. I have long been concerned about the
plight of the farmer. Believe it or not, in
early days, I spent most of my working
years on the farm. But in thinking this
whole thing over, I have also been con-
cerned about the plight of the aged and the
indigent in our urban centers, people who
are holding on to their household by a sheer
breadth of many considerations. I would
wager if we added up those in the latter
category who are aged and indigent, they
would add up to those farmers who are
meeting with this plight. It seems to me if
we are going to have special legislation
in one area within our constitution, we
certainly ought to add it in this other area.
I believe there are ways to deal with the
plight of the farmer. I for one believe that
we ought to keep as many of the small
farmers who are working hard to eke out
a living where they are; bringing them into
the city will certainly compound problems
both of the city and of the farm. But I do
not think this is the way out any more
than that it is the way out for the aged
and the indigent in the urban centers to
write into the constitution a proposal of
this kind.
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