"Gov. (William Preston) Lane does not like taxes ... but as long as you have colleges to take your money, ... you are to have taxes. But we do need money for our public schools, for our medical centers and surely for road building."

Thus reads a 1947 editorial from the old, now-defunct Democratic Advocate relating to the first Maryland retail sales tax, which went into effect July 1, 1947. The piece noted that, "Opposition to the sales taxes by our merchants was 100 per cent and (they) feel very blue over the outcome."

Don't we all?

Yet on the other side of that ledger, an article in that paper on June 27, 1947 states: "With the beginning of Governor Lane's new fiscal program of July 1, Carroll County will start to receive $531,108.73 additional in state revenues annually for the cooperation of its government functions and relief of taxation at the local level."

Sounds like a trend that has not been sustained in recent years by the Maryland General Assembly. Contrast that 1947 revenue sharing plan with the special taxing session of the General Assembly last fall -- which increased tax revenues going to Annapolis and decreased revenues going to municipalities and counties.

Meanwhile, also in 1947, that newspaper reported that "$532,108.73 is Carroll County's share of the $20,411,348.18 in additional state revenues to be allocated each year to the political subdivisions of Maryland."

Alas, there are two sides to the revenue and tax equation. Twenty years earlier, on July 4, 1924, the newspaper carried an article stating that the Carroll County commissioners announced a 10-cent increase in the county's tax rate, from $1.40 to $1.50.

The commissioners claimed the tax rate "would have been considerably less ... if it had not been for the extraordinary expense for the repair or construction of bridges destroyed by floods, about $30,000."

The commissioners also cited "the increase in mandatory items in the school budget, and the Act of the Legislature of 1924, compelling the county to raise annually the sum of $8,000 for the volunteer fire companies of the county."

It was also in this time period that, according to an article in the Union Bridge Pilot on Feb. 18, 1921, that, "Teachers' pay (is) being withheld owing in lack of funds, and it appears the county has reached the limit of its credit. A few years ago, comparatively, when taxes were below the dollar mark, we were told that the outlook for a lower rate of taxation was bright.

"Today the rate is higher than ever, while the county's treasury is in bad shape."

Full of Bulova

So let's get away from politics and taxes and get to America's pastime. It was right before a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies on July 1, 1941, that the first television ad was broadcast in the U.S.

At exactly 2:29 in the afternoon, New York City's NBC affiliate, WNBT, aired a 20-second spot for the Bulova Watch Company.

According to an account from the company's history, the ad simply displayed a Bulova watch over a map of the U.S., with a voice-over of the company's slogan "America runs on Bulova time!"

Bulova paid $9 for the ad.

Speaking of time and money, it's time to see who could answer last week's Sunday Carroll Eagle history trivia quiz. (OK, there was no money involved, but the coffee mug is priceless.)

The quiz asked: "When did the second 'westbound' span of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge open and, for a tiebreaker, how much did it cost and when did the construction begin?"

Dick Snyder, Ruth Anderson and Jamie Wehler answered correctly that construction of the second westbound span of the Bay Bridge began in May 1969. It was opened on June 28, 1973, at a cost of $148 million.

Drum roll please ... Snyder, of Taneytown, gets the Carroll County "journalistic holy grail" (thanks to Dr. Patrick Turnes for coming up with that phrase): the famous Sunday Carroll Eagle mug.

This week's trivia question is going to be a little bit harder:

"Who were the three Carroll County commissioners in 1947?

Think you know? If so, send me an e-mail with Sunday Carroll Eagle in the subject line.

When he's not watching TV commercials or paying sales taxes, Kevin Dayhoff can be reached at kdayhoff@carr.org.

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