THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Cardin.
DELEGATE CARDIN: Mr. Chairman,
and fellow delegates, I will not repeat the
arguments that were used against the five
per cent of the registered voters because
you know exactly how the Committee felt
when we made our recommendation for five
per cent of the gubernatorial vote. I will
draw your attention to the fact that three
per cent divided in half is one and a half
per cent to suspend legislation. This I
would call a tool in the hands of a small
minority, to thwart the will of the ma-
jority; one and a half per cent would be all
that is necessary. I feel this would be in-
justice to our new legislature and also
would impede good government. I also
would like to stress the fact that the pres-
ent provision, if you read the total article,
states that there will be sixty days to peti-
tion to referendum and a full thirty days
for securing the first half of the signa-
tures. Under today's Constitution we do
not have that assurance, and we took this
into consideration when we recommended
raising to five per cent. Today it is con-
ceivable that the Governor will wait until
the last day before he signs a bill into
law, and will leave less than twenty days
for petitions to be secured. We have ar-
ranged it by our recommendation that a
minimum of thirty days pass in order to
suspend legislation with the full sixty days
to take to referendum.
I urge you not to keep it at three per
cent. We all know that this year there was
a petition which was successful in signa-
tures against the tax reform, and petitions
successful in signatures against, if I am
not mistaken, the Fair Housing Act. These
two were successful with signatures at
three per cent. They were unsuccessful for
other reasons.
I suggest that it will be too easy to se-
cure signatures at three per cent. Let us
retain it at the five and strike a happy
balance.
I would like to call to your attention that
we will if we leave it at three per cent,
invite the same difficulty the legislature
had in 1962, when it had to raise it. Let
us not knowingly write provisions for re-
vision in our new Constitution.
THE CHAIRMAN: That completes the
controlled time debate. I would like to ad-
vise Delegate Miller that as we go into
the uncontrolled portion of the debate, her
proposed amendment to an amendment will
be in order. |
It is unnecessary to give it now, but at
any time now it will be in order.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Miller.
DELEGATE E. MILLER: May I be
recognized for a minute in opposition to
the amendment?
THE CHAIRMAN: The procedure is
for someone who is in favor of the amend-
ment to speak for three minutes, and then
for someone who is against to speak for
three minutes. We will have to recognize
a person in favor. Delegate Koss, do you
wish to speak?
DELEGATE KOSS: No. I was going
to ask whether or not we had used up all
our time because I wanted to yield some to
Congressman Miller if it were available.
THE CHAIRMAN: I understand that.
You have only used eight minutes. I had
been under the impression that you had
concluded your time under controlled time.
DELEGATE KOSS: Mr. Chairman, I
would like to yield then some time to Dele-
gate Miller, as much as he would like.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Miller, all
right. Delegate Miller, you have gotten in
under the controlled time.
DELEGATE E. MILLER: Mr. Chair-
man, my thoughts are very brief on this
subject.
We all are anxious to have a safety
valve, and I believe there ought to be some
provision for referendum, but I think we
ought to think also of the practical side,
that every time we have a referendum in
the future, and it fails and it becomes
merely a lot of commitment with no results,
we have not accomplished anything for the
State of Maryland. It seems to me it is
very unlikely that we can get enough pub-
lic sentiment to override the legislature if
we cannot get 5 per cent of the signatures,
and just from a purely practical stand-
point, I think the Majority Report is the
one we should adopt.
THE CHAIRMAN: Is there any further
use of controlled time? If not, we will go
to the uncontrolled time. Does anyone wish
to speak in favor of the amendment under
the uncontrolled time? Does anyone seek to
speak? Does Delegate Hutchinson wish to
speak in favor?
DELEGATE HUTCHINSON: Yes, I do.
I was hoping someone else would speak
first, but I just want to say one thing
about Mrs. Cardin's remarks about the sus- |
