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I II ;| r" ie l- A. 1 ly 27, to to the ie f~ I- I I act ct the ie jy [$ ,n of 0f at | • , | t : ! , . . ! . [ j . l I . | ; . " TaxpayerClaimsTransfer Of Fund to Pimlico Illegal Money Accumulated from Mutuel Tax for Improvements at Track BALTIMORE, Md.. June 19. — A taxpayers suit to recover 17,488.88 from the Maryland Jockey Club, operators of Pimlico, was threatened today by Hynman Pressman, a local attorney. Claiming that the money was "improperly and illegally transferred to the jockey club on Nov. 1950," Pressman, in letters addressed Hall Hammond, Attorney General; comptroller of the Treasury and the Mary-! land Racing Commission, asked to be advised "what your intentions are, because intend to file a suit if you do not promptly." Last week the state officials denied charge that the transfer of the money from the racing fund to the Maryland Jockey Club was illegal. The fund, which has been accumulated by a tax of 1-2 1 per cent on the muluel play, can be spent only for improvements of the track at at which it was taken. The original legisla-! _ tion specified that it must be spent or com-. mitted within three years after it was collected. *■ Pressman contends that 07,081.56 of of the total sum transferred in November, ;r, 1950, was collected during the years of 1944 14 to 1947 and that it should revert to the ie state as part of its general funds because the money was not applied to improvement nt within the specified time. The balance of of the 17,488.88, he argues, should be returned e- to the racing fund. Frank Small, Jr., chairman of the racing ig commission, explained the transfer by saying v- that the three-year-limit imposed by oy the original legislation had been extended id in the present instance to December 31, !1, 1950, because of the war emergency. The agreement between the Maryland id Jockey Club and the commission, which :h enabled the club to get the money, was as reached in a series of conferences in which :h the Attorney General participated. The lat-l t- ter said the money was paid after the club ib guaranteed to use the funds for improvements e- to be started one year after Federal al controls on construction were lifted.
