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The Clerk will read the amendment.
READING CLERK: Amendment No. 12
to Committee Recommendation GP-13 by
Delegates Grant, Barrick, Boileau, Cardin,
Carson, Case, James, Kirkland, Moser,
Needle, Neumann, Rollins, Sybert, Willis,
and Willoner: On page 29 following line
33 of section 33, County Surveyors, add the
following new section:
"Section 33 A. Charter Amendments of
Municipal Corporations.
"Any municipal corporation existing on
June 30, 1968, shall have the power and
authority (a) to amend or repeal an exist-
ing charter or local laws relating to the
incorporation, organization, government, or
affairs of said municipal corporation here-
tofore enacted by the General Assembly of
Maryland, and (b) to adopt a new charter
and to amend or repeal any charter con-
sistent with the provisions of this consti-
tution and any laws of the General As-
sembly pertaining thereto."
THE CHAIRMAN: The amendment is
submitted by Delegate Grant, seconded by
the co-sponsors.
The Chair recognizes Delegate Grant.
DELEGATE GRANT: Mr. President,
would you add the name of Delegate Gullett
to the sponsors?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gullett is
added to the list of sponsors.
DELEGATE GRANT: This amendment
will require a little bit of history. If any-
one wants to follow me in detail, you can
start with page 85 of the copy of the
Constitution.
Roughly, in 1954 an amendment to the
Constitution was adopted, Article XI-E,
"Municipal Corporations." Without having
to read it, it essentially consists of six sec-
tions. Section 1 provided that from here on
in the General Assembly would deal with
municipal corporations only by a public
general law. Now, the specific part of the
amendment speaking to that says, "but the
General Assembly shall act in relation to
the incorporation or organization of gov-
ernment or affairs of any municipal cor-
poration only by general law."
Section 2 provided for classification of
municipalities and this section was never
implemented by the General Assembly,
never used in Maryland.
Section 3 of this constitutional amend-
ment is essentially the same as the sections
that we have proposed to add. It said, "Any
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such municipal corporation, now existing or
hereafter created, shall have the power and
authority (a) to amend or repeal an exist-
ing charter or local laws relating to the
incorporation, organization, government or
affairs of said municipal corporation here-
tofore enacted by the General Assembly of
Maryland, and (b) to adopt a new charter,
and to amend or repeal any charter
adopted under the provisions of this article."
Now, that was section 3 of the amend-
ment. Section 4 of the amendment set up
the procedures by which this was to be
done.
Section 5 of the amendment dealt with
taxation, and this particular part of the
amendment has already been incorporated
in parts of the Constitution dealing with
state finance.
Section 6 of the amendment dealt with
laws regarding the Sabbath day and al-
coholic beverages which are not germane at
this time.
Now, as a result of the passage of that
amendment, the General Assembly then en-
acted Article 23A of the Code, and in sec-
tions 11 to 18 of Article 23A, they de-
scribed how the charter amendments were
to be made by the municipalities. Section
11 of Article 23A of the Code says: "Every
municipal corporation in this State shall
proceed as in this subheading provided in
exercising and applying the powers for the
amendment of municipal charters which
are granted thereto by Article XI-E of the
Constitution of Maryland."
Now, the remaining sections, from 12 to
18, are details of procedures about the
resolutions, posting, publication, referen-
dum, et cetera.
When the local government article was
reported out of the Committee, we said
specifically that the municipal corporations
shall continue to exercise all those powers
which they now have. As a result, this
language has not been changed in either
the Committee of the Whole or the Com-
mittee on Style and Drafting and still re-
mains the very same if you look at Article
7.05 in line 48 on page 3. It says, "or their
existing powers as drawn," et cetera.
What we are talking about is the exist-
ing powers. The memorandum which ac-
companied the Local Government Commit-
tee report on this said specifically, "Your
Committee's recommendation retains for
existing municipalities, not only their ex-
isting charter powers, but also those powers
authorized by law. Existing municipal cor-
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