728 LAWS OF MARYLAND. [CH. 335

shall honor the same out of any funds in their hands unap-
propriated to special purposes, and should the Mayor and
Council not have the necessary funds or provision therefor
to meet such drafts, then the Mayor and Council are
authorized and empowered to borrow on the faith and
credit of the town or raise by special tax the funds neces-
sary to meet the deficiency. The said Easton Utilities
Commission shall be and they are hereby further directed
and required to so revise from time to time the rates, or the
rate schedule, so far as may be found practical, that the
gross revenue from each of the municipally owned revenue
producing utilities, except the sewerage system, will be
adequate for the cost and the expenses of properly keeping
up, operating and providing for the indicated normal
increase in demand, of the said utility, and to repay with
interest, within a period of five years any amount that may
be advanced or may have been heretofore advanced by the
Mayor and Council, or advanced from the funds of any
other utility, for the purpose of meeting a deficiency as
above outlined; and to provide for an annual return to the
Mayor and Council, a sum equal to five per centum of the
invested capital in the electric department of said utilities,
said return in no event to be less than $11, 250. 00; and said
Commission shall likewise so revise from time to time the
rates, or rate schedule, of each of the municipally owned
utilities that funds will not accumulate beyond the reason-
able requirements of properly keeping up, operating and
providing for the indicated normal increase in demand of
the said utility; and the payment of the annual return to
the Mayor and Council of Easton, of five per centum on
the invested capital in the electric department, as afore-
said, which said sum shall be paid into the general funds
of the Mayor and Council of Easton on or before the 31st
day of December, of each year, beginning December 31,
1933, the said payment to be calculated upon the invested
capital in the electric department, as provided aforesaid,
which invested capital shall be equal to the net equity of
the Easton Utilities Commission in the depreciated fixed
assets of the electric department, as determined by the
annual audit of said Easton Utilities Commission; and the
sum remaining of the net worth of the electric department
after deduction of this invested capital shall be carried to
the surplus account, and to this account each year shall be
added the operating profits that may accrue to the electric
department, and from it shall be deducted the operating
losses should any occur in said department; any transfer to
the invested capital through an increase in the net equity
in the depreciated fixed assets, and the annual return on