3098                                                 VETOES

so as to provide a retail sales tax exemption in the
event of a transfer of "assets of a sole proprietorship
or a partnership to a newly—created corporation in return
for stock of the corporation." In fact, the text of the
first reader copy of the bill (at page 1, units 78
through 80) clearly carried out the single purpose
announced in the title.

During the legislative process, however, the bill
was amended so as to add six specific retail sales tax
exemptions, no one of which standing alone is as broad as
the exemption originally contained in the bill (which was
subsequently deleted). An examination of these six new
exemptions persuades us that they are considerably
broader than the purpose of the act as stated in its
title, which title, was unfortunately not amended by the
General Assembly to reflect these changes. In our view,
this bill is fatally defective because of this oversight
and no single exemption could be salvaged if the bill
were to be signed by you.

This is particularly unfortunate because the bill as
originally written was obviously intended to cure what a
number of private attorneys have perceived to be an
inequity in the retail sales tax statute. See 57

Opinions__of the Attorney General 64 6 (1972); Borden,

"Sales Taxation of Capital Transactions in Maryland," 33
U.Md.L.Rev. 3 (1973). In order to accomplish its
purposes however the bill will have to be redrafted and
introduced and enacted at a subsequent session of the
General Assembly.

Very truly yours,
/s/ Francis B. Burch
Attorney General

House Bill No. 217 - State Police Employees
AN ACT concerning

State Police - Employees

FOR the purpose of correcting certain erroneous language
which fails to distinguish between civilian and
police employees of the Maryland State Police.

May 31, 1974.

Honorable John Hanson Briscoe
Speaker of the House of Delegates
State House
Annapolis, Maryland 21404