Tommyrot in Baltimore

Baltimore's newspapers went on a rampage last week against a startling proposal by Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro Jr.: special taxes on advertising revenue, their main source of income. No other U.S. city, however hard up, has tried to raise cash by threatening the economic wellsprings of the press.

Tommy D'Alesandro got the idea in a long, late session a month ago with the city's board of estimates. Scrambling for new revenue, they had just about settled on a sewer tax when someone brought in a copy of the next day's Baltimore Sun. On the back page was a deft cartoon by Staffer Richard Q. Yardley showing the taxpayer apprehensively brushing his teeth while Tax Collector Tommy hovered outside his bathroom. D'Alesandro got the picture. "They'll say Tommy's charging them five cents every time they flush the John!" he bellowed in dismay.

Within minutes, the sewer tax was down the drain, and D'Alesandro had his inspiration. Why not tax the bothersome Sunpapers and Baltimore's TV stations on their ad revenues? For that matter, why not tax the advertisers themselves? Last week D'Alesandro finally introduced his bill to raise $4,200,000 by hitting advertisers with a tax of 7 1/2% on their outlays, soaking newspapers, radio and TV stations 2% of their ad revenues.

"Anti-business." thundered the Sunpapers. "A merciless blow," agreed the Baltimore Federation of Labor. Retorted Tommy: "Crybaby nonsense."

In the common crisis, Hearst's News-Post closed ranks with the rival Sunpapers, recalled that in 1936 the Supreme Court had outlawed a similar law that Huey Long created in Louisiana to curb his opposition. Advertisers and agencies warned that the mayor's proposals would cripple the city's economy, drafted a crash program to carry their case to the people before the D'Alesandro-dominated city council debates the bill this week.

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