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in recommended section 7.06. Today local
government in Maryland is characterized
by a higher degree of involvement by the
General Assembly in county affairs and
in the passage of local legislation than
exists in most other states. Home rule by
itself lessens this involvement to some ex-
tent. Shared powers will reduce this in-
volvement even more.
But the committee recommendation in
section 7.06 contains a specific prohibition
against local laws, a requirement that all
laws with certain exceptions be public gen-
eral laws of statewide application, and a
restriction on the now prevalent system of
county exemptions from public general
laws. This will reduce public local legisla-
tion even further.
The fourth problem about which you
have been reading recently in the news-
papers is the interrelationship of municipal
corporations with the county and State.
Sections 7.07 through 7.09 relate to this.
We resolved here to preserve the home
rule powers of existing municipal corpora-
tions and to permit both the counties and
the General Assembly to give municipali-
ties additional powers. The General Assem-
bly will provide procedures for the resolu-
tion of disagreements between counties and
municipalities not capable of resolution on
a local basis.
This is in contrast to the present Con-
stitution under which both counties and
municipalities have received parallel grants
of powers from the General Assembly, To-
day, counties cannot grant municipalities
additional powers. Since counties and mu-
nicipalities have overlapping jurisdiction,
completion for powers and resources has
at times occurred instead of cooperation.
New municipalities and other intra-
county units of government which we call
"civil units" may be created within the
counties and will derive their powers from
the county, subject to procedures laid down
by the General Assembly.
The fifth area is multi-county govern-
ment. This is covered by recommended sec-
tion 7.10. Many present and future prob-
lems should be dealt with on a regional
basis, not on a county basis. There are
many needs requiring governmental action
transcending county boundary lines, such
as planning, zoning, economic development,
sanitation, water supply, mass transit,
water and air pollution, and public health,
to name just a few.
The power of the General Assembly to
establish multi-county authorities and re-
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gional governments is preserved by recom-
mended section 7.10. The General Assembly
has that power now.
In addition, the State and all units of
local government are permitted by recom-
mended section 8.06 to enter into agree-
ments with other units of government, sub-
ject to limitations provided by law.
Having touched in a general way upon
the main issues faced by the Committee,
and given in general form some of the reso-
lutions we recommend, I would like to turn
to a section by section analysis of the
Committee Recommendation.
Section 7.01 contains definitions. I have
already described what this does. I shall
not read the section itself. I think it is
fairly clear.
"County" is defined; "municipal corpo-
ration" is defined; "civil unit" is defined;
and "region" is defined.
Baltimore City, as you know, is presently
treated as a county for most purposes, but
for some purposes is treated as a munici-
pality. For clarity we include Baltimore
City within the term "county."
Of course, this also clarifies that new
counties which might be formed also would
be included within the definition of
"county."
"Municipal corporations" is defined so as
to exclude Baltimore City and the counties.
Multi-county governmental units such as
the Washington Suburban Sanitary Com-
mission are also clearly excluded. Although
some sections of the present Constitution
specifically exclude such authorities, this
definition clarifies that multi-county au-
thorities would be excluded.
"Civil units" is used to mean a unit of
local government, other than a municipality,
furnishing county services in part of a
county which is entirely within and sub-
ject to the control of the county. The term
does not include a department of county
government.
We will get into this in greater detail
when we discuss section 7.08, where the
term is used.
Sections 7.02, Establishment of Coun-
ties; and 7.10, Establishment of Multi-
County Government Units, should be con-
sidered together. They deal with the power
of the General Assembly to establish coun-
ties and multi-county governmental units.
In sections 7.02 and 7.10 and the entire
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