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Committee's recommendation retains for existing municipali-

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ties, not only their existing charter powers, but also those

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powers authorized by law. Existing municipal corporations

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are permitted by these existing laws to amend their

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charters ."

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The difficulty is that although all law is

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continued in effect and therefore Article 23A would be

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continuing in effect as statutory law, it provides only the

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procedure and not the authority. The authority to the

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amendment of the charter is contained in Article HE, Section

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3 of the old Constitution.

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Now, municipal corporations are essentially a

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creature of the General Assemblv in that the General

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Assembly has plenary power to do with them whatever they

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want to do. Of course they have to do it by public general

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law, but they are within the complete nurview of the

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General Assembly. Therefore, we do not want to put what was

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formerly HE necessarily in the constitutional status. We

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have to continue to give it legislative status.

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THE CHAIRMAN: You have ono minute.

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DELEGATE GRANT: If at some future time the