Article XI-F
shall be submitted to the voters at that next ensu-
ing general election. If the proposed charter is
adopted by the voters, this particular resolution
to become a code county shall not be submitted
to the voters and shall have no further effect. If
the proposed charter is rejected by the voters, the
code question under this Article shall be submit-
ted to the voters at the general election two years
later, and no charter question under Article IIA
shall be submitted to the voters at that general
election.
SEC. 3. Except as otherwise provided in this
Article, a code county may enact, amend, or re-
peal a public local law of that county, following
the procedure in this Article.
SEC. 4. Except as otherwise provided in this
Article, the General Assembly shall not enact,
amend, or repeal a public local law which is spe-
cial or local in its terms or effect within a code
county. The General Assembly may enact,
amend, or repeal public local laws applicable to
code counties only by general enactments which
in term and effect apply alike to all code counties
in one or more of the classes provided for in Sec-
tion 5 of this Article.
SEC. 5. The General Assembly, by law, shall
classify all code counties by grouping them into
not more than four classes based either upon
population as determined in the most recent Fed-
eral or State census or upon such other criteria as
determined by the General Assembly to be ap-
propriate. Not more than one such grouping of
code counties into four (or fewer) classes may be
in effect at any one time, and the enactment of
any grouping of code counties into four (or fewer)
classes repeals any other such grouping then in
effect. Code counties may be classified only as
provided in this section.
SEC. 6. A code county may enact, amend, or
repeal a public local law of that county by a reso-
lution of the board of county commissioners. "The
General Assembly may amplify the provisions of
this section by general law in any manner not in-
consistent with this Article.
SEC. 7. Any action of a code county in the en-
actment, amendment, or repeal of a public local
law is subject to a referendum of the voters in the
county, as in this section provided. The enact-
ment, amendment, or repeal shall be effective un-
less a petition of the registered voters of the
county requires that it be submitted to a referen-
dum of the voters in the county. The General As-
sembly shall amplify the provisions of this section
by general law in any manner not inconsistent

Constitution of Maryland/837
with this Article, except that in any event the
number of signatures required on such a petition
shall not be fewer than five percentum (5%) of
the voters in a county registered for county and
State elections.
SEC. 8. Notwithstanding any other provisions
of this Article, the General Assembly has exclu-
sive power to enact, amend, or repeal any local
law for a code county which (1) authorizes or
places a maximum limit upon the rate of prop-
erty taxes which may be imposed by the code
county; or (2) authorizes or regulates the maxi-
mum amount of indebtedness which may be in-
curred by the code county. Public local laws
enacted by the General Assembly under this
section prevail over any public local laws
enacted by the code county under other sections
in this Article.
SEC. 9. A code county shall not levy any
type of tax, license fee, franchise tax, or fee
which was not in effect or authorized in the
code county at the time it came under the
provisions of this Article, until an express au-
thorization of the General Assembly has been
enacted for this purpose by a general law which
in its terms and effect applies alike to all code
counties in one or more of the classes provided
for in Section 5 of this Article.
SEC. 10. All laws enacted by the General
Assembly and in effect when this Article was
added to the Constitution shall remain in effect
until amended or repealed under this Constitu-
tion. Every public local law enacted, amended,
or repealed by a county under the provisions of
this Article prevails over the previous public lo-
cal law, except to the extent it is subject to an
applicable law enacted by the General Assem-
bly.
ARTICLE XI-G"°
CITY OF BALTIMORE—REHABILITA-
TION AND IMPROVEMENT LOANS.
1."' The General Assembly of Maryland, by
public local law, may authorize the Mayor and
City Council of Baltimore:
(a) To make or contract to make financial loans
to the owners of buildings or structures located
within the boundaries of Baltimore City, which are
used or occupied for residential or commercial
"° Added by Chapter 375, Acts of 1972, ratified November 7,
1972.
"' Amended by Chapter 133, Acts of 1974, ratified November 5,
1974.