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General Assembly. The language that the
limitation of this section, that the General
Assembly shall enable only public general
laws shall not apply, goes to each of the
eight exceptions. Therefore, with respect
to each of the eight exceptions the General
Assembly may pass local laws, but when
it chooses to act by way of a general law
then no county can be exempted from the
effect of that general law.
THE PRESIDENT: Your time has ex-
pired, Delegate 'Clagett.
DELEGATE CLAGETT. Thank you, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Pullen.
DELEGATE PULLEN: Mr. Chairman, I
should like to ask Delegate Clagett a
question.
THE PRESIDENT: His time has ex-
pired, Delegate Pullen. If he gets the
floor again you will have the opportunity
to ask him the question again.
Delegate Pullen.
DELEGATE PULLEN: I am afraid I do
not understand, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: He is entitled to
speak twice. His time on this speech has
expired. If he gets the floor the second
time and desires to yield to a question,
he may do so.
DELEGATE PULLEN: Just so someone
answers the question I have which I think
is rather important.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
Delegate Moser.
DELEGATE MOSER: .Mr. President, I
rise in opposition to Delegate Clagett's
Amendment No. 16-A. I will try to be brief.
I want to make clear at the outset that
neither I nor Delegate Clag-ett spoke for
the Committee; that is, the Local Govern-
ment Committee as such.
However, it is apparent that Delegate
Clagett and I have a difference of the un-
derstanding of what section 7.06 originally
did. It is my view that the Style and Draft-
ing Committee made no substantive change
in section 7.06 to come up with 3.23 as it
now stands.
I am not quite sure that I understand
what Delegate Clagett is driving at. I
have listened to his exposition of his amend-
ment three or four times and I still feel
that it is unnecessarily confusing.
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Incidentally, while I am on my feet I
will say that I believe that Amendment
No. 16 which is the one by Carson and
Adkins, et al, does not constitute a change
of substance and I personally, again, would
favor that if 16-A is defeated.
The reason that it seems to me that 16-A
is confusing and should be defeated is this:
the prohibition against exemptions, that
no county shall be exempt, applies to a
public general law. It says, "No county
shall be exempt from a public general law."
This is in 3.23 and it was also in sec-
tion 7.06.
Now, if the limitation against public gen-
eral — well, let me read the Clagett amend-
ment as it is set up here precisely.
THE PRESIDENT: You have one half
minute.
DELEGATE MOSER: "The limitation
of this section that the General Assembly
shall enact only general public laws shall
not apply to." If that is the only limita-
tion that these exceptions are exceptions to,
it seems to me that the prohibition against
exemptions has no effect at all because the
limitation against exemptions applies only
where there are general laws. I would
therefore —
THE PRESIDENT: Your time has
expired.
DELEGATE MOSER: If my explana-
tion is reasonably clear I would hope that
16-A is defeated because I think it accom-
plishes nothing except to create confusion.
T,HE PRESIDENT: Delegate Carson.
DELEGATE CARSON: Mr. Chairman
and ladies and gentlemen, I think as does
Chairman Moser that 16-A should be de-
feated. Let me try to make it simple in lay
terms.
The exceptions provided now in the legis-
lative article, and I think there are eight
or nine of them, are areas in which State
has an overriding interest and it, and it
alone, primarily is going to be the factor.
For this reason it has been decided by the
various committees and by you the Con-
vention that in these areas the General
Assembly should not be restricted but
should be enabled to enact laws which may
possibly vary from county to county.
What Delegate Clagett wants to do con-
fuses the issue and is a variation from our
local government recommendation. What
he wants to do is to say although the Gen-
eral Assembly can pass local laws never-
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