J. MILLARD TAWES, GOVERNOR                           37

6. Persons committed at time of passage of Secs. 4 to 6; adoption
of rules and regulations by Department.

The Department of Mental Hygiene shall have full power and
authority, in the case of all persons heretofore committed to any
institution under the provisions of the preceding sections of this
article and still confined therein, to exercise all of the powers con-
ferred upon it by Sec. 5 of this article with respect to persons here-
after to be so committed, to the end that payment for the future
maintenance and support of such persons while in such institutions
may be required, made, collected, and accounted for as in the case of
persons hereafter to be committed under the provisions of said
Sec. [4] 5. The Department is authorized and empowered to adopt
and promulgate reasonable rules and regulations covering the details
of enforcing the powers and procedures provided for in this section
and Sec. 5 hereinabove.

44. Proportion of payment for support and maintenance of pa-
tients in institutions under jurisdiction of Department to be paid by
local authorities.

For each patient in any State institution under the jurisdiction
of the Department of Mental Hygiene from Baltimore City or from
any one of the counties of the State, the said city or county, as the
case may be, shall as herein specified pay to the Department of Men-
tal Hygiene at the rate of one hundred and twenty-five dollars
($125.00) annually for the board, care and treatment of such pa-
tient, and the remaining amount required for the board, care and
treatment of such insane shall be paid from the treasury of the
State. The expense for the care, board and treatment of all patients
in the State institution under the jurisdiction of the Department of
Mental Hygiene shall be a charge upon each county sending such
patient or patients to such institutions, as hereinafter provided. The
Department of Mental Hygiene shall credit the account of each
county, for any patient, with any amounts actually collected and re-
ceived by the Department from or for that patient, whether received
from himself, his relatives, others legally chargeable with his main-
tenance and support or others; the credit allowed to the county in
any one year, for any one patient, not to exceed the amount paid by
the county for that patient's maintenance and support. It shall be
the duty of the Department of Mental Hygiene to furnish to the
county commissioners or county council of each county, or the de-
partment of public welfare in Baltimore City, having patients in
the State institutions under the jurisdiction of the Department of
Mental Hygiene a quarterly statement giving the number of pa-
tients and the name of each patient coming from and charged to
such county, and the cost of maintenance due from each county for
such patient or patients. The board of county commissioners or
county council of said county shall levy a tax in said county for said
amount and pay the amount due the State to the Department of
Mental Hygiene; and, should any county fail to levy a tax in said
county for said amount then due said State, and shall fail at the
time of levying other county taxes thereafter to levy the tax afore-
said to amount sufficient to pay the indebtedness subsequently in-
curred, it shall be the duty of the Attorney General to bring in the
name of the State an action against any county in the circuit court
of said county so failing aforesaid to enforce the levying of said tax
for the recovery of the amount due the State, as aforesaid. Upon
the failure of any county to levy such tax as aforesaid to an amount