HARRY W. NICE, GOVERNOR. 1287

levied state taxes on sales of gasoline when the said Fed-
eral gasoline tax was imposed and, such tax is, in f act,
an invasion of the rights of the states, and,

WHEREAS, the use for general fund purposes, of the said
revenues derived from such Federal gasoline tax, consti-
tutes, in effect, a usurpation and diversion of funds that
should rightfully accrue to the states for road construction
and maintenance, and,

WHEREAS, the assessment of this tax by the Federal Gov-
ernment is highly detrimental to the interests of the states,
in that it now tends to make the total gasoline tax in many
states prohibitive and is causing in some states, dimin-
ished returns, and,

WHEREAS, contrary to the intent and purpose of the
gasoline tax principle as originally recognized by the states
and later subscribed to by the Congress of the United
States in the Hayden-Cartwright Act of 1934, the Federal
gasoline tax also encourages diversion and evasion of gaso-
line taxes in the states, and,

WHEREAS, revenues from the taxation of gasoline sales
were intended properly to belong to the states, for the
construction and maintenance of roads and must be re-
stored to them particularly in view of the necessity for
matching future Federal Aid funds, as soon to be provided
under the Hayden-Cartwright Act of 1934, and,

WHEREAS, for the foregoing reasons, and in view of the
fact that the Ways and Means Committee of the House of
Representatives, the Finance Committee of the Senate and
the Vinson Sub-Committee on Double Taxation have each
previously recognized the unfairness of the Federal Gaso-
line tax and have stated that it ought to be eliminated, and,

WHEREAS, we believe that the said tax should be allowed
to expire at the expiration of the present fiscal year, on
June 30, 1935, and ^ihe taxation of gasoline hereafter left
to the states for their exclusive use as a means of provid-
ing funds for highways, Now, therefore, be it,

Resolved, by the General Assembly of the State of Mary-
land, That the above Committees and both Houses of Con-
gress be and hereby are memorialized on behalf of the mem-
bers of the General Assembly of the State of Maryland to