1570 LAWS OF MARYLAND. [CH. 656

practical, that the gross revenue from each of the muni-
cipally owned revenue producing utilities, except the sewer-
age 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 hereto-
fore 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 reasonable 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 four per
centum on the invested capital in the electric department,
as aforesaid, 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 ac-
count, 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.

(c) Any transfer to the invested capital through an in-
crease in the net equity in the depreciated fixed assets, and
the annual return on invested capital to the general funds
of the Mayor and Council of Easton, hereinbefore provided,
and all remaining accrued operating profits of the electrical
department for the year then ending shall be paid over into
the general funds of the Mayor and Council of Easton, unless
the total cash funds and investments of the electric depart-
ment as approved by Chapter 103 of the Acts of the General
Assembly of 1935 be less than the sum of |100, 000. 00, in which
case all or such part of said remaining accrued operating
profits as may be necessary to bring said cash funds and