safety." I am wondering since these words
seem to me to be critical, why they were
left out?
DELEGATE GILCHRIST: They were
left out apparently in typing because the
Hostetter amendment was to have been
picked up in toto.
DELEGATE CASE: Very well.
THE CHAIRMAN: The next time a
lawyer is wrong, blame it on his typist.
DELEGATE CASE: May be wrong but
never in double
THE CHAIRMAN: That's what I do.
DELEGATE CASE: My next question,
because this is somewhat confusing to me,
I wonder if you would restate in capsule
form precisely the differences in substance
between the amendment now designated as
Amendment No. 14 and Committee Recom-
mendation S&E-1 which we have now voted
on.
DELEGATE GILCHRIST: Using Com-
mittee Recommendation S&E-1 as a basis
for this, the substantive changes relate
first to a change from "special legislation"
to "emergency legislation" as a designa-
tion, a change which was initiated by your
motion of this afternoon to amend portions
of the local government article. The pro-
vision relating to the number of registered
voters casting votes for governor, five per
cent, remains the same. The language re-
lating to one-half coming from one terri-
tory remains the same. The date is changed
from sixty days after the enacement in the
committee recommendation to sixty days
from the date on which it becomes law.
The petition provisions, of course, were
struck out of the committee recommenda-
tion on motion this afternoon.
The question of suspension remains on
the same basis, actually it is a little more
liberal, that is if the petition is filed be-
fore the date on which the law is to take
effect, then the law stands suspended until
thirty days after its approval.
The effect of the referendum in the Com-
mittee Recommendation and in this amend-
ment remains the same.
DELEGATE CASE: One more question.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Case.
DELEGATE CASE: To Delegate Gil-
christ. From what you have just said, cor-
rect me if I am wrong in this, it would
seem that the really substantive change |
in Amendment No. 14 from the Committee
proposal lies in the fact that there is noth-
ing in Amendment No. 14 which corre-
sponds to sections 5a and b of the Com-
mittee draft. Am 1 correct about that?
DELEGATE GILCHRIST: Yes. 5b was
struck out by Mrs. Cardin's amendment.
DELEGATE CASE: I was under the
impression that was 6b.
DELEGATE GILCHRIST: One of our
sponsors struck out the wrong subsection.
If in the provisions of the amendment, if
the petition is filed before the date on which
it is to take effect, unless it is an emer-
gency law, it is suspended. The provision
of the committee recommendation is that
if it is filed within thirty days after the
date of enactment, with one-half of the
number of signatures required, the law is
suspended.
DELEGATE CASE: Then what we are
really talking about other than the verbiage
is the 30-law-60-day provision in the Com-
mittee's draft vis-a-vis the 60-day provision
in your draft, is this true?
DELEGATE GILCHRIST: Right.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Koss.
DELEGATE KOSS: I would humbly beg
to differ with Mr. Gilchrist in what he
characterizes as the only differences. First
of all, there is the question of at which
general elections; and further the matter
of no time limit which we pointed out be-
fore, with a greatly expanded session of
the General Assembly, could very possibly
make the time available to the petitioners
to take their case to the people nonexistent.
Substantively, I also take issue with Mr.
Gilchrist. First let me say the whole ques-
tion of special legislation seems to be ren-
dered moot by adoption of this body of Mr.
Hostetter's amendment.
Secondly, in terms of the language, I
think the intent of the Committee was very
clear as to what date they were talking
about and if you lawyers say this is the
right one, let this be it.
In line 16, I still would like to take issue
with Mr. Gilchrist in that he said that this
makes more liberal the suspension provi-
sion. Actually there is nothing in here that
guarantees any petition group that the
law would be suspended. This says that the
petition has to be filed before the date on
which the law is to take effect. As long as
we do not know when the law is to take |
