174                                 LAWS OF MARYLAND                          [CH. 126

County and the Authority will be performing an essential govern-
mental function in the exercise of the powers conferred by this Act,
and the Authority shall not be required to pay any taxes or assess-
ments upon any facility or any part thereof or upon its activities in
the operation and maintenance of any facility or upon any revenues
therefrom, and the project or projects and the bonds of the Authority,
the interest thereon and any gain realized from the sale or exchange
thereof shall be and remain forever exempt from all state, municipal
and local taxation.

440A. (Bonds Eligible for Investment.) Revenue bonds issued
under the provisions of this Act are hereby made securities in which
all public officers and public agencies of the State and its political
subdivisions, and all banks, trust companies, savings and loan asso-
ciations, investment companies and others carrying on a banking
business, all insurance companies and insurance associations and
others carrying on an insurance business, all administrators, execu-
tors, guardians, trustees and other fiduciaries, and all other persons
may legally and properly invest funds, including capital in their con-
trol or belonging to them. Such bonds are hereby made securities
which may properly and legally be deposited with and received by any
State or municipal officer or any agency or political subdivision of
the State for any purpose for which the deposit of bonds or other
obligations of the State is now or may hereafter be authorized by law.

440B. (Alternative Method.) The provisions of this Act shall be
deemed to provide an additional and alternative method for the doing
of the things authorized hereby and shall be regarded as supplemental
and additional to powers and conferred by other laws and shall not
be regarded as in derogation of any powers now existing, and such
provisions shall be liberally construed to effect the purposes thereof.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the provisions of this Act
are severable, arid it is the intention to confer the whole or any part
of the powers herein provided for, and if any of the provisions of this
Act shall be held unconstitutional by any court of competent juris-
diction, the decision of such court shall not affect or impair any of
the remaining provisions of this Act. It is hereby declared to be the
legislative intent that this Act would have been adopted had such
unconstitutional provisions not been included therein.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That Chapter 345 of the Acts
of the General Assembly of Maryland passed at its January Session
in 1951 be and the same is hereby repealed.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That this Act shall take effect
June 1, 1955.

Approved March 24,1955.