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Section 7.04 is open to amendment. Are
there any amendments to section 7.04?
(There was no response.)
THE CHAIRMAN: The Chair hears
none.
Section 7.05 is open to amendment. Are
there any amendments to section 7.05?
(There was no response.)
THE CHAIRMAN: Section 7.07— just
a second.
Delegate Needle, do you have an amend-
ment?
DELEGATE NEEDLE: I have an
amendment to section 7.05, Amendment A.
THE CHAIRMAN: We will reserve
number 5 for Delegate Kirkland's amend-
ment. We will number this as Amendment
No. 6.
The Clerk will read the amendment.
The amendment is on one page, but there
is a memorandum attached to it.
READING CLERK: Amendment No. 6
to Committee Recommendation LG-1, by
Delegate Needle: On page 3 section 7.05,
Powers of Counties, line 14 strike out the
words "and power to tax"; and on page 3
line 25 after the period, add the following:
"The governing body of a county may
also request the authority to exercise any
taxing power by a resolution submitted ^
to the General Assembly before the be-
ginning of a regular session in accord-
ance with the procedures established by
law. The county may exercise this power
if, by the end of the regular session, the
General Assembly has not rejected the
resolution."
THE CHAIRMAN: Is the amendment
seconded? Does anyone second the amend-
ment?
DELEGATE CLAGETT: Second.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Clagett
seconds the amendment.
Delegate Needle.
DELEGATE NEEDLE: Mr. Chairman,
I would like to take this opportunity, first
to commend the Chairman of the Local
Government Committee and his staff and
the entire Committee for a job which obvi-
ously has been very well done.
Delegate Moser has positively amazed me
with the diligence with which he has ap-
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proached this task. The Committee nas
worked long and hard hours. We had ob-
viously a very difficult task before us. We
met late into the evening on many occa-
sions. Delegate Moser would go home at
very unreasonable hours and return the
next morning with considerable work done
while other members of the Committee
slept.
With that background, I indicate that
I hesitate to offer this amendment. How-
ever, I am firmly convinced that I must
raise a very crucial issue before this Con-
vention, and that is, the power of the local
subdivisions to tax.
I am firmly committed to the concept of
shared powers as expressed in section 7.05
of the Committee recommendation. I feel
that this is, as a matter of fact, the key
recommendation of the Local Government
Committee, and will do more than any
other recommendation to make the coun-
ties more viable and responsive so that they
may deal with local matters at the local
level.
However, there is an exception to the
shared powers concept of the counties, not
only for judicial matters, but for tax mat-
ters as well.
Delegates Case and Raley introduced
Proposal No. 387, which makes an excep-
tion of the tax power from the shared
powers concept. They appeared on several
instances before the full Committee and on
several occasions with the Subcommittee of
x. the Local Government Committee, and
convinced the Local Government Commit-
tee that the General Assembly should have
plenary power over the tax power of the
counties, and that if the local subdivisions
should have any tax power, it should be
delegated to them by the General Assem-
bly. I will submit to the wisdom of that
proposition.
However, my amendment strikes a com-
promise between their proposal and the
Constitutional Convention Commission draft
of this section, which does not make any
exception of the tax power from the shared
powers. This compromise proposal retains
in the counties the all important initiative,
which is most consistent with the shared
powers concept of local taxation. It pro-
vides that the counties come to the General
Assembly with a delegate documented reso-
lution adopted by the County Council, and
request the General Assembly to grant it
the new local tax power requested.
This is a workable method by which the
counties can approach the General Aesem-
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