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your intention that the General Assembly
in establishing an agricultural class could
then further establish a class limited in
size to farms over a thousand acres?
Would that be a legitimate type of class?
DELEGATE CASE: Well, these are
questions which the courts are going to
have to decide ultimately. Again, as I say,
the question is one of reasonableness. Now,
the General Assembly has not to this time
used any one single factor as determina-
tive. It has used twenty-nine factors in
combination. What you are asking me is
could they say any property which has
more than one thousand acres is ipso facto
a farm? I am saying to you, I do not know
the answer to that.
DELEGATE WHEATLEY: I think per-
haps it would be better to refer it to the
Department of Agriculture because that is
not the primary intent of my question.
Could age in itself be a class such as
people who reach the age sixty-five are in
a class?
DELEGATE CASE: It is pretty well
established that the age sixty-five is a de-
lineation of a class for social security, tax
purposes, income credit purposes, and real
estate tax purposes. I think that is pretty
well established.
DELEGATE WHEATLEY : Further,
under 8.02-2 this same class could be
granted as an exemption as to age?
DELEGATE CASE: If it were uniform,
that is correct.
DELEGATE WHEATLEY: Finally, we
could use the existing' method of tax credit
for the same type of allowance for age.
DELEGATE CASE: There is nothing in
this which would prevent the use of the
credit or in any way intend that it be
abolished.
DELEGATE WHEATLEY: So, in es-
sence, we are giving- the General Assembly
and local government as to class, exemption
and credit, what differentiation is made by
the Committee as to whom, and we have
gotten to this a little bit, as to whom this
would apply. Would the State be able to
control class alone or would it be regulated
by the local government?
DELEGATE CASE: As this is now
written, as far as exemptions are con-
cerned, definitively only the State, but
through the inference that exemptions fol-
low the taxing power under section 8.01-b,
the local political unit can do it. If it were
a county as we established earlier, they
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could do it through a grant by a single
application to that county. If it were a
municipality, on the other hand, it would be
a general law.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Wheatley.
DELEGATE WHEATLEY: As to class—
DELEGATE CASE: The same would be
true.
DELEGATE WHEATLEY: In either
event, it would be local or state as the case
may be.
DELEGATE CASE: Yes.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Maurer.
DELEGATE MAURER: Delegate Case,
your answers to Delegate Miller raised
several questions in my mind, and I would
like to ask you something further about
section 8.01 (a) and the phrase "exercising-
legislative powers". As I understand sec-
tion 8. 01 (a) it is basically what was in the
draft constitution with the thought, and I
quote from the commentary,
"the purpose of this draft section is to
prevent the imposition of taxes without
consent of the legislative representatives
that delegations of taxing- authority to
local subdivisions have been held proper,
but in some instances the principle ap-
pears to have been eroded through the
delegation of taxing- authority to non-
elective administrative boards".
Does your phrase, "by the elected repre-
sentatives of the people exercising legisla-
tive powers" equate with the phrase, "by
popularly elected representative bodies", or
is it more restrictive?
DELEGATE CASE: That question was
answered last night, Delegate Maurer. It
was asked by Deleg-ate Clagett, and I said
it meant exactly the same thing and the
Committee still felt the word "popularly"
should be in the draft. We would have no
objection to it.
DELEGATE MAURER: I know the
word "popularly", but there are other
bodies exercising legislative functions than
as you describe it. I do not see physical
independence for school boards, but we do
have an elected school board in Montg'om-
ery power.
DELEGATE CASE: It does not exercise
legislative power.
DELEGATE MAURER: Then your
phrase is not the same as "by a popularly
elected legislative power"?
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