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There being 101 votes in the affirmative
and 15 in the negative, the amendment to
the amendment is adopted.
The question now rises on the adoption
of Amendment No. 10 as amended. Is there
any further discussion?
Delegate Hanson.
DELEGATE HANSON: Mr. Chairman,
unless I can obtain greater clarification of
this amendment than I have at present, I
will have to oppose it. What this seems to
do is open up on an intergovernmental ba-
sis a fiscal affliction that occurs in other
States but from which Maryland thank-
fully has been spared through lack of oc-
currence. This is the power of special pur-
pose authorities or special purpose districts
to impose taxes. As a general principle of
government and government finance I think
it is most desirable to permit only general
purpose units of government to impose
taxes. In many States, school boards, for
example, have the power to tax inde-
pendently of the county government. I have
always considered it one of the best fea-
tures of Maryland government that this
does not exist, that the general purpose is
to balance the needs of the community and
to develop a unified tax program. This
would also apply at the State level.
It seems to me that unless the amend-
ment clearly does not support the situation
I have just described we should oppose it.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Case.
DELEGATE CASE: I might suggest to
Delegate Hanson that he has already voted
for the thing he opposed when he voted for
section 7.08. He voted for the creation of
civil units, and those civil units were ex-
pressly given this power by that section.
It is a little strange to me to think that
he would vote to permit a civil unit, which
could be a sewer authority in a county, not
including an incorporated city, the power
to tax, if delegated to do so, and yet deny
the power to the same unit if an incor-
porated city was included in it. His posi-
tion is completely inconsistent with what
he has already done.
THE CHAIRMAN: The Chair recog-
nizes Delegate Clagett to speak in opposi-
tion to the amendment.
DELEGATE CLAGETT: Mr. Chairman,
it is true that a civil unit could include the
type of animal that Mr. Case brought into
being by his question yesterday and the
repetition of the question this morning.
However, it is not contemplated that that
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kind of a unit would be the one within the
definition of civil unit. A civil unit is a
unit of less than county stature, created
only by the county for those areas where
there has been no incorporation in the
form of a municipal incorporation.
It would apply in those unincorporated
areas where people are living under the
label of a town or a city but have not gone
through the formality of incorporation and
where the county has seen fit to provide
them a forum where they could meet and
discuss governmental problems and respon-
sibilities, and be able by concerted action
to do something with respect to them.
That kind of a concept of civil unit is
quite different from that which Delegate
Case has brought into focus here, although
what he says is possible and cannot be
ignored. It is the unfortunate difficulty of
accurate definition, of being able to include
and exclude at one and the same time.
I say, however, in opposition to this
amendment, that since we are now going
into an area of intergovernmental authori-
ties, such as the Washington Suburban
Sanitary Commission, or the school boards,
or such other types of intergovernmental
authorities as future need may dictate, the
required action should be taken.
There is no reason to give such an au-
thority or governmental type of unit the
power to impose taxes. I am delighted to
find Delegate Case in the position that I
was in when I came forward with the
earlier amendment suggested by Delegate
Needles, of being inconsistent with respect
to the provision of uniformity across the
board, to preserve the stability of the fiscal
and tax structure.
Why, then, would we want to give to
such an authority the power to disrupt
that uniformity by imposing nuisance
taxes? We can not know for certain what
kind of taxes they are going to impose.
THE CHAIRMAN: You have one-
quarter of a minute, Delegate Clagett.
DELEGATE CLAGETT: If there is any
real merit to the idea of excluding the tax
power from the broad grant of power to
the counties, then there is all the more
merit to keeping that power of taxation
uniformly determined, area by area, unit by
unit, in the General Assembly, and not in
any other subordinate unit.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak in favor of the amend-
ment?
Delegate Moser.
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