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answer both Delegate Macdonald and Delegate Hardwicke who

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have spoken together in opposition to this amendment. I

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find in no way additional powers for the municipal corpora-

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tions. I would be extremely disturbed for instance in the

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City of College Park to find we could not raise our tax rate

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because the tax rate is fixed in the municipal charter.

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This would certainly be a sorry state of affairs.

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As to Delegate Hardwicke's mention of new

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charters, it has for years been the desire of the General

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Assembly to get municipalities to update their charters,

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adopt new charters. They even went to the extent of pub-

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lishing new charters, 23B of the annotated code. A great

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many of municipalities have these charters dating back to the

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1880s, so I think the General Assembly would still hold they

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would adopt these new charters. Certainly this amendment

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would be a perfecting amendment. I am for it.

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THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Carson.

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DELEGATE CARSON: Mr. Chairman, ladies and

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gentlemen, the history of this particular section, which

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now lies in Section 3 of Article 11E of your Constitution,

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is interesting. back in the days before 1954 most of the