THEODORE R. MCKELDIN, GOVERNOR 295

An additional $2,800,000 in licenses and recordation taxes
levied by State law, is retained by the civil divisions.

This brings the total of County and Municipal revenue
provided by State laws to $90,442,974 and is about $63,-
136,000 more than the State returned to the subdivisions
in 1947.

This staggering increase, at least in part, is a result of
the ever increasing tendency to use the State as a tax collec-
tor for the political subdivisions. A major part of this sur-
render of funds by the State resulted from the enactment of
laws in line with the Sherbow Commission recommendations
in 1947. At that time the State was in a relatively favorable
financial position with accumulated surplus because of neces-
sary deferment of many expenditures under war-time re-
strictions. However, in some of the political subdivisions,
^and particularly in the City of Baltimore, the tax situation
was acute and even desperate."

The Commission did not attempt to foresee future eco-
nomic and social developments and deplored the lack of ade-
quate records in the local subdivisions to make a more ac-
curate study. Its recommendations were "offered only to cor-
rect what have seemed to us clear inequities in the present
situation. The extent of these recommendations has been
set to meet what we believe to be the requirements of the
near-term future."

Neither the Commission nor the Legislature at the time
contemplated that the figures would reach their present
astronomical heights. In 1946, for example, all income from
licenses, admissions and recordation taxes, was exclusively
that of the State. Since 1947 it has been exclusively a source
of local revenue, handled by State agencies. Thus, these
sources which gave the subdivisions nothing in 1946, will
yield them an estimated $3,130,789 in 1955 without any re-
sponsibility for the collection thereof. A similar situation
exists as to racing revenues in which local governments did
not participate prior to 1947. Since that time they have re-
ceived approximately half of this income, again collected
by State agencies without responsibility on the part of the
Counties and municipalities. This source which gave them
nothing in 1946 will yield them an estimated $3,188,000
in 1955.

Larger shares of State revenues in other fields, coupled
with rising collections, likewise are producing income totals
for counties and municipalities far in excess of anything that
was anticipated in 1947.

A striking illustration is the State income tax from which
local subdivisions realized only $1,632,000 in 1946, and from