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Maryland Governor Calls Hearing on "Ripper Bill Chief Executive May Veto Racing Measure on Changing Board PIMLICO, Baltimore, Md., May 4. — Racing interests met in the State House today to present their arguments against the notorious "Ripper bill" to reorganize the State Racing Commission before Gov. J. Millard Tawes. The states chief executive, who has until late tomorrow to sign or veto the measure, called the public hearing. The Maryland Racing Council and other opponents of the legislation charge the bill is: 1. "Ripper" legislation to drop the present commission though two of the three members terms have several years to run before expiration. 2. Designed to aid Ocean Downs Raceway, the only state track that has not strenuously objected to the measure. Meanwhile, the incumbent commission has ordered an audit of Ocean Downs books because of "irregularities" reported by minority stockholders. The harness track, for its part, suggests the audit may have been inspired by the pending legislation, by which it is popularly supposed to advantage. The petitioners against the Ripper bill are sanguine that even now they have enough signatures to put a referendum on the ballot in the fall of 1960, and block Tawes from acting against the present commission, except for an appointee to succeed chairman D. Eldred Rinehart this summer. Many believe that Tawes will veto the measure after the hearing.
