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T AGAINST 10 PER CENT TAX ON MASS. BETTING h BOSTON, Mass., June 5. Bayard Tucker-man, Jr., representative of the Suffolk Downs race track, attacked legislation which would levy a ten per cent tax on all legalized betting to provide funds for reducing the age limit of old age assistance recipients from 70 to 65 years. Tuckerman asserted that under the terms of the measure, Massachusetts tracks would be placed under a serious handicap in competing with Rhode Island and New Hampshire tracks. He estimated that if the bill were enacted, Massachusetts tracks would be forced to turn over about double the amount which out of state tracks are required to return to their respective states. This money, Tuckerman contended, would come out of patrons pockets and as the result, the patrons would not be inclined to attend meets at Massachusetts tracks if they could obtain betting services cheaper elsewhere. State Senator McKeown of Springfield, chairman of the committee on pensions; Robert Batt, legislative agent of the state federation of labor; Fred A. Hutchinson, member of Special Pension Commission, and Wendel P. Thore, vice chairman of the commission, spoke in favor of the measure. Richard R. Conant, state commissioner of public welfare, told the committee that the additional cost to the taxpayer would be 1,000,000 if the age limit were reduced to 65 years.
