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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 Montgom-
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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