page 2 strike out all of lines 1 through 50;
and on page 3 strike out all of lines 1
through 6; and insert in lieu thereof the
following:
"1. Right of Referendum. If, within
sixty days from the date on which a bill
becomes law, a petition is filed with the
office of the governor to refer the law to
a vote of the people, the law shall be
submitted to a vote at the next general
election. If rejected by a majority of
those voting on the question, the law
shall stand repealed thirty days there-
after. If the petition is filed before the
date on which the law is to take effect,
then, unless the law is one designated as
an emergency law and is passed by the
affirmative vote of three-fifths of all the
members of each house of the General
Assembly, it shall not take effect until
thirty days after its approval by a ma-
jority of those voting on the question in
the election.
"2. Referendum Petition. A petition
shall be sufficient to refer a law, or any
part thereof, to a vote of the people if
signed by a number of qualified voters
equal to five per cent of the total num-
ber of votes cast for governor, in the
most recent gubernatorial election, pro-
vided that not more than one-half of such
required number shall be voters residing
in any one county.
"3. Referendum Restrictions. No plan
for legislative districting or apportion-
ment or congressional districting, no law
imposing a tax and no law making an
appropriation for the state government
or for any public institution shall be sub-
ject to referendum."
THE CHAIRMAN: The Chair under-
stands that this is a controlled time situa-
tion with Delegate Gilchrist having ten
minutes, and Delegate Koss having ten
minutes. Delegate Koss, you sought atten-
tion of the Chair. Was there any point you
had to make?
DELEGATE KOSS: The point I wanted
to make was that we have all had this
available to us since some time in June,
since this is basically the Commission draft
and I did not think it necessary to read it.
THE CHAIRMAN: Out of a super
abundance of care, I think it was proper.
Delegate Gilchrist, you may proceed with
your explanation of Amendment N. 14.
DELEGATE GILCHRIST: Amendment
No. 14 as it is offered now is very slightly |
different from the amendment as it was
offered and withdrawn this afternoon.
This amendment, as it now is proposed,
takes care of the problem as to the enact-
ment of laws and uses instead of that the
phraseology "when an act becomes law",
thus clearing up what might be a very
fruitful source of litigation.
It has adopted the Hostetter Amendment
which was adopted by the Convention this
afternoon, inserting an emergency designa-
tion into a law which would prevent its
being suspended. It retains the five per
cent of the total votes cast for the gover-
nor in the most recent election which is
basically that which was approved this
afternoon. It adopts the language of the
amendment made in response to a proposal
by Delegate Case with respect to approp-
riation for the state government or any
public institution rather than the language
which referred to maintaining.
The sponsors believe that the amendment
has for all practical purposes been sub-
stantially debated in the course of the day.
We would like to say that if this is passed,
we shall submit two further amendments,
one a matter of housekeeping to eliminate
"or any part thereof" which appears at the
end of line 26 and beginning of line 27 in
the proposal and as it is taken from the
draft constitution because we believe that
a part of the law really should not be re-
ferred. We shall also introduce an amend-
ment to provide that if this is successful a
new section be added to authorize the Gen-
eral Assembly to provide for the implemen-
tation of the right of referendum by laws
not inconsistent with this article.
I move the adoption of Amendment No.
14.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Koss.
DELEGATE KOSS: I rise to speak in
opposition to Amendment No. 14. I take
issue, first of all, with the characterization
of this as a rewrite. If that were all it
were, I would not feel so strongly because
certainly neither 1 nor do I think the Com-
mittee takes any great pride in authorship.
We were. more interested in substantive
aspects of the proposal.
The specifics of this, as I look at it, I
can object to individually. First of all the
Committee felt, and felt rather strongly,
that as things were developing and as in
fact this body voted the other day, with
the possibility of a five-month legislative
session, it was important that those who |
