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the amendment proposed by Delegate Clag-
ett will do and will not do.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding):
Delegate Moser, will you answer that in-
quiry?
DELEGATE MOSER: I would suggest,
Mr. Chairman, that Delegate Bamberger
knows as well as I do what it will do or
what it will not do. I will be glad to ex-
plain what I think it will do myself.
If you put in public general law or laws, I
do not think there is any difference between
the two since Style and Drafting are work-
ing on this. It will probably end up reading
"by law" which would carry with it the
general law requirement. The effect would
be to require the legislature when they
deal with this subject to deal with all mu-
nicipalities similarly and with all counties
similarly.
I think that probably would be the only
effect. I have some question as to what this
would do with respect to authorities. I
think, though, that the public general law
requirement would not effect the ability
to differentiate between one authority and
another.
As a matter of information, simply be-
cause I think if this is in, the legislature
must have complete authority to deal with
the problem any way they want to. Other-
wise it is highly restrictive and very in-
efficient. I am going to vote against Dele-
gate Clagett's amendment. I hope everybody
else does the same thing.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding):
Delegate Moser, will you yield to a ques-
tion?
DELEGATE MOSER: Yes.
DELEGATE BAMBERGER: How will
the legislature act if we do not adopt Dele-
gate Clagett's amendment. And if we retain
the language "provided by the General As-
sembly", how may they act?
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding):
Delegate Moser.
DELEGATE MOSER: Some of my friends
back here have been suggesting how this
one should be answered. The answer is
that they may act any way that they want
to. The point is that this is an area of such
importance that the General Assembly
should be able to act any way that they
want to insofar as varying the effect of the
sovereign immunity provisions.
Municipalities vary tremendously one
from the other, and I think it is most im-
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portant that they be able to act in a varie-
gated way and that would be the result in
answer to your question, Delegate Bamber-
ger.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding):
Delegate Fox.
DELEGATE FOX: Mr. Chairman, I rise
to speak in support of Delegate Clagett's
amendment. I think if we allow the General
Assembly to say that one municipality has
sovereign immunity or a big one does and a
little one does not, we are back in the
morass of local legislation. A municipality
could waive its own sovereignty if they
wanted to do so, and I see nothing wrong
with that. I urge you not to get us back
into the morass of local legislation which
we would be in unless we adopt Delegate
Clagett's amendment.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding):
Delegate Clagett.
DELEGATE CLAGETT: Mr. Chairman, I
believe the point has been made and I hope
that it has been one which has been fully
digested. What the omission of these four
words would be is that the General Assem-
bly could provide that Prince George's
County shall be sued to the full limits of
whatever the ability to pay of that subdivi-
sion may be, whereas Saint Mary's County
or Baltimore City would not be subject to
suit at all. I think that is so extreme that it
makes it ridiculous.
If we are going to permit the subdivision
to be sued or the State to be sued, it should
be uniform across the board throughout the
entire State in the same manner as when
the Court of Appeals rules upon a similar
question. It equally affects all subdivisions
across the board. By putting these words
in, you understand that when the General
Assembly acts, it acts with a due considera-
tion of the effect of its action upon the poli-
tical subdivisions as one class, or upon the
municipalities as one class.
The Local Government Committee has
decided and recommended to this body and
this body has approved that when dealing
with the municipalities the General As-
sembly shall do so uniformly across the
board treating them as one class. That is,
they act only by general law and that is
specifically provided. There should be no
exception so far as the counties are con-
cerned or with respect to any other govern-
mental unit.
I strongly urge that we go forward with
keeping the General Assembly upon its
own proper level, acting for the best inter-
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