ALBERT C. RITCHIE, GOVERNOR. 77

Section 145. The Mayor and Councilmen of Frostburg may
from time to time cause an assessment to be made of all prop-
erty, real and personal, of every kind and description in the
Town of Frostburg, by three persons appointed by them, and
may levy and collect a tax on the assessable property of said
city for the general purposes of the corporation not exceeding in
any one year fifty cents on every one hundred dollars' worth
of said assessable property.

The said Mayor and Councilmen may also levy and collect
such a tax, not exceeding in any one year ten cents on each
one hundred dollars' worth of the assessable property of said
city as may be necessary to pay the interest on any bonds or
floating indebtedness of said city created prior to the passage
of this Act and to provide a sinking fund for the redemption
or payment thereof at maturity; provided, however, that all
present and future bonded and floating indebtedness of said
city shall not exceed at any one time seven per centum of the

assessed valuation of the property in said city; and further
provided, that the Mayor and Councilmen shall not have
power to pledge the faith and credit of said city for any sum
exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10, 000. 00) without first sub-
mitting the question to the voters of said city after twenty
(20) days' notice by handbills or otherwise, and a majority
of the legal votes cast being in favor thereof. The said sum
of ten thousand dollars hereby specified being intended to be
an amount in excess at any one time of the amount which shall
be ascertained by the Finance Committee to be collectible from
the taxes, licenses, fines, paving assessments and other moneys
due said city for the current year. This provision which lim-
its the Mayor and Councilmen of Frostburg from pledging;
the faith and credit of said city beyond the sum of ten thou-
sand dollars, except as hereinafter provided, is intended as a
limitation and restriction as to the amount said municipality
may at any time hereafter borrow or oblige itself to pay, by
contract or otherwise, in excess of the estimated income and
revenue of said city, but shall not be deemed to prohibit said
city from entering into any contract or borrowing money for
the payment of any permanent improvement where the city
is to be reimbursed in part by the abutting property owners, in
which event this limitation shall apply only to the city's pro-
portionate part of the cost of said improvement.

But if the Mayor and Councilmen shall be authorized by
the vote above mentioned at any time to pledge the credit of
the city to an amount of ten thousand dollars or more, then