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that that board of review shall have such
powers as the General Assembly shall pre-
scribe by law.
Now, it has been explained to me that
the reason that this deviates from what
this transitional legislation is supposed to
be in this connection, is that the Board of
Public Works has such great powers, par-
ticularly in the bond field, that if there is
any chance that the General Assembly
would not act to grant these powers to the
board of review when it is created, why
then our financial situation would be
chaotic to say the least. When we have
three legislative sessions by which the
General Assembly can act, it seems to me
that this fear is almost like building a
scarecrow to tear down because obviously
the General Assembly has to act respon-
sibly in a number of areas, day in and
day out. They have to pass appropriations;
they do it. If they did not do it, chaos
would result. What I want to do is to
bring to everybody's attention that here
is an instance where you have a transfer
of power to a new board which is not
justified by the definition of what transi-
tional legislation should be. It is not in the
criteria. It is outside of it. Somebody may
raise the question, well, since the board is
to have such powers as the General As-
sembly is going to prescribe, what is wrong
with transferring it in this transitional
legislation and then June or July 1, 1968,
if they want to change it, let them change
it.
The difference is that in order to get a
real change they would have to, if these
powers are to be transferred, get a law
approved by the governor, and if the gov-
ernor decided to veto that change, they
would have to have the votes to override
the veto. This is a different matter from
carrying out what is in the constitution.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Morgan.
DELEGATE MORGAN: Mr. Chairman,
there is no question but what the Board of
Public Works has a great deal of very
insignificant duties.
If you look at the agenda of the Board
of Public Works you will find the most
insignificant items on it such as whether
the volunteer fire department of Annapolis,
Maryland, shall be granted the use of some
ground for its annual picnic. I certainly
agree with Delegate Gleason that the Gen-
eral Assembly ought to look very carefully
at the powers that have been given to the
Board of Public Works which are trans-
ferred to the board of review.
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That was brought out in the debate on
the executive article when the executive
article was on the floor, and I am heartily
in favor of the General Assembly going
into the powers they have given to the
Board of Public Works very, very care-
fully. I really think, however, it would be
a chaotic condition if we did not transfer
to the new board of review all of the
existing powers of the Board of Public
Works and give the General Assembly
time to review all of the powers that the
Board of Public Works has had, and decide
which ones are important and which ones
are unimportant, which ones should be
exercised and which ones should not be
exercised.
I hope this amendment is defeated, Mr.
Chairman.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Sherbow.
DELEGATE SHERBOW: I hope this
amendment is defeated. There is one place
where really we ought to tread so lightly
and so carefully and know what we are
doing, and this is in the field where the
state's credit and the state's bond issues
already outstanding, and those yet to be
created, are concerned.
Now, we have already approved by sec-
tion 14 that the rights, powers, and duties
of the Board of Public Works continue as
so vested until January 6, 1971, but if we
do not pass this present new section 14
transferring all of the powers of the
Board of Public Works to the board of re-
view, we are really heading, and I adopt
Delegate Adkins and Delegate Morgan's
words, a chaotic situation.
Let me give you just one example. Every
year the Board of Public Works must set
the real estate tax of Maryland based on
statutes already passed dealing with bond
issues already outstanding. It is easy to
say, of course, that the legislature is going
to act, but just suppose there is an error,
just suppose they do not act. You know
you cannot ever get back a credit that you
have established that you slip up on.
Now, I understand Delegate Gleason's
motive and I understand the problem that
concerns him. I am sure that he would
much rather have the legislature, since it
is vested with this power, able to act with-
out the possibility of veto by the governor,
but there has not been anything that we
have said or done in this constitution;
when we say as prescribed by law, that
does not mean a statute which the gov-
ernor may veto. You cannot do this by a
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