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we have added the second sentence of sec-
tion 7.06. The second and third sentences,
which should be considered together, read
as follows:
"The General Assembly may nevertheless
enable any county or countijs to exercise
any power or perform any function denied
to other counties, subject to such standards
as the General Assembly may prescribe. No
county shall be exempt from a public gen-
eral law."
The second sentence, is intended to per-
mit the General Assembly to enable the
county governing bodies of one or more
counties to enact ordinances permitting the
exercise of a power or function which is
denied other county governments. It is in-
tended, as I mentioned before to provide
some flexibility.
We all viewed the classification system
in the draft constitution with some degree
of horror, because it really was not flexible.
We were fearful that it might create a
different kind of public local legislation.
This provision I just read, the local option
provision, would not permit the General
Assembly directly to pass local laws which
the county government could pass. Rather,
it would allow the county governing body
itself to provide the law for some particular
subject, and this is very important, until
the county acted the general law would
prevail. It is not an exemption. An ex-
emption is immediately effective. A county
might be completely exempted from the
general law under the present situation.
This could not be done under this section.
The local option would not become effec-
tive until the local county governing body
actually acted.
This would permit the General Assem-
bly to recognize special problems and insti-
tutions existing in some counties and not
in others.
For instance, it could be utilized to au-
thorize Montgomery County to have an
elected school board or it could be used to
permit Baltimore City to elect its own
school board. If Baltimore City wished to
pass a rent escrow ordinance, we would in-
tend that the General Assembly could per-
mit this, notwithstanding the statewide
landlord-tenant law. I emphasize this: the
General Assembly should do this only if it
determined that the State as a whole did
not need a rent escrow law at that time or
was not ready for one. This is an impor-
tant example, because it illustrates what
happens right now.
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The Legislative Council, I think, is con-
sidering a rent escrow law and probably is
not going to recommend that the General
Assembly enact one. However, as one is
desperately needed in Baltimore City, the
General Assembly should have power to
permit this in Baltimore City or in any
other place it is needed.
This option is not the same as a local
exemption, as is fairly well clarified on
page 27 of our report.
The section as a whole is intended to pre-
vent the General Assembly from enacting
legislation with county by county differ-
entiation unrelated to the purpose of the
law, as exemplified by the liquor laws codi-
fied in Article 2-B of the Code. Permissible
charges for liquor licenses vary minutely
from county to county as do hours of opera-
tion of licensees. Hours of operation could
be handled on the local option basis if the
General Assembly so desired.
Let us turn to sections 7.07 through 7.09.
These three sections are intended to pro-
vide a unified arrangement for municipali-
ties and civil divisions. The Committee
found that many municipal corporations
have played and continue to play a vital
and necessary role in Maryland govern-
ment. In several counties, municipalities
provide most of the local services avail-
able. In many other counties municipalities
provide some government services, such as
sewerage and water, which would not
otherwise be available to the residents in
those areas.
On the other hand, as I mentioned, we
found that conflicts have developed and
continue to develop between the counties
and municipalities. The Committee also
found that the extent of these conflicts is
not so great as many persons believe them
to be. Perhaps the problem creating the
most conflict is the municipal annexation
of land outside the boundaries. The provi-
sion in Article 23-A of the Maryland Code
now permits the free annexation of lands
without the consent of the county. The
county has no voice in the matter.
Section 7.07 provides procedures with
respect to existing municipal corporations
in these four areas: dissolution, merger,
withdrawal of existing powers and changes
of boundaries, that is, increasing or de-
creasing the boundaries. Any of these mat-
ters can be resolved at the local level by
agreement between the county and the mu-
nicipality. However, the General Assembly
may also provide other procedures by pub-
lic general law.
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