MARVIN MANDEL, Governor                      1177

or more newspapers published within such county or counties for
three weeks, and shall state in said notice the probable cost of the
contemplated improvements, based on then available engineering
estimates, which cost figure shall not be final for any purpose other
than such notice, and shall further state therein that plans of the
improvements may be inspected at the commission's office and that
any person interested in said improvements will be heard by the com-
mission at a time to be specified in the notice [but not less than ten
days after first] which shall be not more than five days after last
publication thereof.

(b)  If twenty-five residents and landowners in the sanitary dis-
trict wherein the improvements are contemplated shall thereupon,
and within ten days after the [last of said publications of said notice,]
hearing above provided for, file a petition with the commission pro-
testing against the proposed improvement, the commission shall
grant them a hearing within [thirty] fifteen days after such petition
is filed in the office of the commission and after not less than five
days notice of the time and place of said hearing by advertisement
published in one or more newspapers published within such county
or counties, and by personal notice addressed to any one or more per-
sons whose names are signed to said petition. After due hearing as
aforesaid, the commission shall decide upon the reasonableness of the
objections stated in the petition; and shall dispose of the same by
written order concurred in by a majority of the commissioners,
which order shall be published in the same manner as notices are
herein required to be published and a copy of which shall be mailed
to any one or more of the petitioners.

(c)  If twenty or more of the petitioners are not satisfied with the
commission's decision, they shall have the right to take and enter,
within ten days after the last publication of said order as aforesaid,
an appeal to the governing body or governing bodies of the county
or counties in which lie the sanitary district or sanitary districts
where such improvements are contemplated who shall review the
commission's decision and decide as to the necessity and propriety
of the improvement contemplated and whether the district can stand
the cost of the same and the decision of the governing body of a
county or the joint decision of the governing bodies of two or more
counties shall be final. In the event any one governing body shall
decide that such contemplated improvements should not be made in
any sanitary district lying in two or more counties, such contem-
plated improvements shall not be made.

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That this Act shall take effect
July 1, 1969.

Approved May 2, 1969.

CHAPTER 475
(Senate Bill 711)

AN ACT to repeal and re-enact, with amendments, Section 12E (d)
of Article 81 of the Annotated Code of Maryland (1968 Supple-
ment), title "Revenue and Taxes," subtitle "What Shall Be Taxed