Yet I note, that just as there are in the
present Constitution six rather detailed sec-
tions dealing with the referendum, so, too,
are there in your proposal six sections deal-
ing with the referendum; and I wondered
whether your Committee gave any thought
to the possibility of compressing the provi-
sions on the referendum. For example, the
first section reserving to the people the
power of referendum would be unnecessary
if the constitution provides for the refer-
endum; secondly, Section 4 dealing with
the petition provisions prescribing the type
of paper, text, et cetera, that have to be
used, would seem more appropriate to be
left to the legislative detail by statute, and
even at least, perhaps, Section 5 (a) and
(b) could be matters that could be dealt
with through statutory law.
Did your Committee discuss the problem
of whether or not the provisions in the
Constitution dealing with the referendum
could be made more succinct than appar-
ently you have proposed them?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Koss.
DELEGATE KOSS: Delegate Scanlan,
I think our primary concern at this stage
was that we not leave out anything that
we meant to include. As far as making it
more succinct, we would have no objection
whatsoever to the Committee on Style,
Drafting and Arrangement using their tal-
ented hand to make it so.
As far as the distinction between consti-
tutionality, or constitutional and statutory
provisions, we did consider this in regard
to Section 4, which repeats language which
is in the existing Constitution, but the
Committee decided that the question of the
responsibility of the person who carries the
petition really is deserving of constitutional
stature. We wanted to insure that the
process of gathering signatures was not
undertaken lightly, and that in this par-
ticular case, I suppose we should have
worried about the legislature not protecting
their own interests, but we were worried
and that is why that was included.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Anderson.
DELEGATE ANDERSON: Delegate
Koss, isn't it true that any bill that was
titled, "special legislation," if it were
passed by a three-fifths vote, would not be
suspendable under a referendum, no matter
what it pertained to?
DELEGATE KOSS: That is correct.
That is similar to the so-called emergency
legislation in the present Constitution. |
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Anderson.
DELEGATE ANDERSON: One other
question. There is no provision made for
the referendum of a local law; is that cor-
rect?
DELEGATE KOSS: This is correct,
and again it is based on the assumption,
and I think my reading of LG-I bears this
out, that there would be only public gen-
eral law; and this is why. If at some point
in the future it were necessary, there could
be a provision in the constitution for pub-
lic local laws; then the Committee would
consider that aspect, but at this time we
were talking about and considering only
public general laws.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Anderson.
DELEGATE ANDERSON: Public local
laws have not been abolished as yet, have
they?
DELEGATE KOSS: We were limiting
ourselves at this point to public general
laws. I think in the memorandum it states
that we were considering only that. At such
point when that issue is settled, we will
bring back another proposal on referendum
of public local laws.
THE CHAIRMAN: I think if the Chair
could elaborate on that answer, Delegate
Anderson, what Delegate Koss is saying is
that the Committee concerned itself only
with the referendum of acts passed by the
General Assembly, and it has assumed that
the Committee of the Whole, and eventually
the Convention will adopt a provision pro-
hibiting the General Assembly from en-
acting public local laws; and that if it does
not do so, her Committee will then be pre-
pared to consider and recommend to the
Convention a provision for referendum of
public local laws; is that correct, Delegate
Koss?
DELEGATE KOSS: That is fully cor-
rect, Mr. Chairman.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are there any
other questions? Delegate Macdonald.
DELEGATE MACDONALD: Madam
Chairman, on page I of the Committee
Recommendation, referring your attention
to lines 17, 18 and 19, you make an excep-
tion in favor of any law making an ap-
propriation for maintaining the state gov-
ernment or for aiding or maintaining any
public instituution.
Are there any appropriation measures
which would be subject to referendum? |
