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Proceedings and Debates of the 1967 Constitutional Convention
Volume 104, Volume 1, Debates 3090   View pdf image (33K)
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3090 CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF MARYLAND [Jan. 2]

ble courses of action open to you. The pre-
sent amendment was adopted which would
delete the language which you desire to
amend. If the vote by which it was adopt-
ed is reconsidered, you could offer your
amendment C as a substitute. If the motion
to reconsider the vote by which Amendment
No. 11 was adopted is rejected, the motion
to reconsider is rejected so that the lan-
guage would still be deleted. Your amend-
ment C would not be in proper form but
essentially the same amendment could be
offered to restore to the section the words
you desire to restore. I do not think you
have to put your motion at this point. You
have either alternate open to you.

Delegate Gleason.

DELEGATE GLEASON: Mr. President,
I had better make my few remarks before
somebody moves the previous question and
not wait until I get to ask that question.

THE PRESIDENT: The Chair would ad-
vise you that when Delegate Rybczynski
obtains the floor again for his second state-
ment as he can, you could ask him the
question then.

DELEGATE GLEASON: I heard you the
second time, Mr. President. Let me say
facts are facts. The budget of this Conven-
tion, which I hold in my hand, does not
show a hundred thousand dollars for tran-
script of these proceedings but it shows
$40,000.

The second fact is that you do not have
a battery of reporters in the United States
Senate or the United States House of
Representatives. You have six people. They
do not stand around, they sit at a chair.
Those six people are backed up by an assis-
tant in the official reporters' room.

The third fact is that I never heard of a
letter of intent attached to a legislative bill
which has the force and effect of construing
what that bill should be in a court of Mary-
land or courts of any other place. That is
what we are precisely talking about here,
legislative intent.

In other words, what does a bill mean if
there is any doubt as to its meaning in a
court case. It is decided now by the courts
and by the judges of this State, not by the
legislative history as protracted and as de-
bated on the floor of either the House of
Delegates or the Senate of Maryland. Y'ou
can have the legislative intent if you have
a transcript. We are now talking about a
multi-million dollar recording apparatus.
It is up to the rules. When this thing came
before the Committee of the Whole, I think

the President of the Convention will recog-
nize that those who supported this amend-
ment went into a deliberative compromise
which I think the delegate from Harford
County provided, and permitted that this
matter be done by rule rather than having
it done automatically in the constitution.
We thought they accepted it, we thought
the rest of the delegates accepted that com-
promise. That was the words of Delegate
James at that time. It came as quite a sur-
prise to see this come out at the last
minute. Apparently compromises do not
stand on the floor of this Convention.

Be that as it may, we have already de-
cided to put into effect in the State of
Maryland the unified judicial system. We
have something like 200 judges approxi-
mately, give or take ten judges, in the
State of Maryland. Nobody on this floor is
going to stand up and say what the cost of
that system is going to be. Here we are
dealing with a legislature. The figures are
that the part of the budget that goes to
providing for the legislature of Maryland
is 15/100ths of 1 per cent. You can get the
best transcript and best recording done for
a hundred thousand dollars. When you talk
about the Senate and House of the United
States, do not forget you are talking about
535 speakers, here we are talking about 160
at most. This is a very vital and important
thing so that the people will know what
their delegates are doing in the legislature
of Maryland, so that when lawyers go into
court .they have a foundation to stand on as
far as the legislative history is concerned.
This is not kid's play.

THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Rybczynski.

DELEGATE RYBCZYNSKI: Mr. Presi-
dent, if you will all look at your memoran-
dum from the secretary's office No. 55
dated November 21, 1967, you will find
attached thereto a schedule dated Novem-
ber 10, 1967. You will find that the tran-
script — I am sure the word after that was
meant to be Salomon Transcribers from
Baltimore — cost $40,000, for printing. You
have to print the thing at $75,000. That
comes to $150,000 any way you handle it.

DELEGATE GLEASON: Will the dele-
gate yield for question ?

THE PRESIDENT: Does Delegate
Rybczynski yield to a question ?

DELEGATE RYBCZYNSKI: Yes.

DELEGATE GLEASON: Can I ask the
delegate how much of that money is related
to post convention expenses?

THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Rybczynski.



 

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Proceedings and Debates of the 1967 Constitutional Convention
Volume 104, Volume 1, Debates 3090   View pdf image (33K)
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