|
the Committee, I take it, that the popula-
tion estimates and the projections would
suffice for the problem that was raised
with the census figure?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: Yes. In ac-
tuality we are told that this will be an
actual count, that this will be more than
an estimate or a projection, that these will
be figures and with respect to 85 percent
of the State, it will be set up on a census
track basis.
DELEGATE WHEATLEY: Thank you.
THE CHAIRMAN: Is there any fur-
ther discussion?
Delegate Barrick.
DELEGATE BARRICK: Mr. Chairman,
I would like to point out one thing that is
still confusing to me: lines 20, 21, 22, 23,
and 24, read "each house district shall not
exceed the population of any other district
by more than 15 percent." Then it follows
that the boundaries of districts shall be
re-established according to these standards.
It seems to me that there is some ques-
tion that if the population did vary after
you redistricted that you would be bound
by the 15 percent, and I do not know what
the results would be.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are you ready for
the question?
The Clerk will ring the quorum bell.
The Question arises on the adoption of
Amendment No. 2 to Committee Recom-
mendation LB-2. A vote Aye is a vote in
favor of Amendment 2. A vote No is a vote
against.
Cast your votes. Has every delegate
voted? Does any delegate desire to change
his vote?
(There was no response.)
The Clerk will record the vote.
There being 30 votes in affirmative and
87 in the negative, the motion is lost. The
amendment is rejected.
Will the pages please distribute the
amendment J. Please mark this Amend-
ment No. 3.
The Chair would like to take this mo-
ment to announce that for the reasons in-
dicated earlier, we are a bit short of ex-
perienced pages this afternoon and this
evening; if any of you do not have your
copy of the amendment by the time the
|
Clerk completes reading the amendment,
simply raise your hand and the pages will
bring you one.
Amendment J is Amendment No. 3. The
Clerk will read the amendment.
READING CLERK: Amendment No. 3
to Committee Recommendation LB-2 by
Delegates M. H. Smith and Hickman:
On page 2 section 3.02, Legislative Dis-
tricts, in line 3 strike out the numerals
"1970" and insert in lieu thereof the numer-
als "1974".
THE CHAIRMAN: Any delegates who
do not have a copy of the amendment please
indicate and hold your hands up for a few
moments.
The amendment has been offered by Dele-
gate M. H. Smith, seconded by Delegate
Hickman. The Chair recognizes Delegate
M. H. Smith to speak to the amendment.
DELEGATE M. SMITH: Mr. Chairman,
I have listened to the way the distinguished
Chairman has said that he is going to get
these figures, but I do not have much con-
fidence in the Department of Planning and
so on on their guesstimates, and I would
prefer that the General Assembly of Mary-
land be apportioned on the basis of an ac-
tual head count.
Now I realize fully that these statisti-
cians will say that their figures are ac-
curate. I have known statisticians that have
said otherwise. I had a debate coach in col-
lege that said there were three kinds of
liars in the world, a liar, a durned liar and
a statistical liar.
I do know with reference to the State
Department of Planning and its population
estimates with reference to the county
which I represent, that figures it presented
to the county Planning Commission showed
an actual loss in population in the first
several years of this decade, a loss that was
not consistent with what was happening in
the school population. It was not consistent
with what was happening by way of build-
ing permits, and it is now interesting to
note that this same agency suggests, judg-
ing by the figures that have been pre-
sented here, that this county will have a
five percent increase in the near decade.
Mr. Chairman, it is for that reason that
we offer this amendment. I realize that this
leaves open the problem of 1970. I would
think that this could be taken care of by a
temporary provision. I realize that com-
ment has been made about a census every
five years. We do not have such a census.
|
