Article XVI
salary, term or duty of any franchise or special
pnvilege, or creating any vested nght or interest,
shall be enacted as an emergency law No law
making any appropnation for maintaining the
State Government, or for maintaining or aiding
any public institution, not exceeding the next pre-
vious appropnation for the same purpose, shall
be subject to rejection or repeal under this Sec-
tion The increase in any such appropnation for
maintaining or aiding any public institution shall
only take effect as in the case of other laws, and
such increase or any part thereof specified in the
petition, may be referred to a vote of the people
upon petition
SEC. 3.'"' (a) The referendum petition
against an Act or part of an Act passed by the
General Assembly, shall be sufficient if signed
by three percent of the qualified voters of the
State of Maryland, calculated upon the whole
number of votes cast for Governor at the last
preceding Gubernatonal election, of whom not
more than half are residents of Baltimore City,
or of any one County However, any Public
Local Law for any one County or the City of
Baltimore, shall be referred by the Secretary of
State only to the people of the County or City
of Baltimore, upon a referendum petition of ten
percent of the qualified voters of the County or
City of Baltimore, as the case may be, calculat-
ed upon the whole number of votes cast respec-
tively for Governor at the last preceding Guber-
natonal election
(b) If more than one-third, but less than the
full number of signatures required to complete
any referendum petition against any law passed
by the General Assembly, be filed with the Secre-
tary of State before the first day of June, the time
for the law to take effect and for filing the re-
mainder of signatures to complete the petition
shall be extended to the thirtieth day of the same
month, with like effect
If an Act is passed less than 45 days pnor to
June 1, it may not become effective sooner than
31 days after its passage To bnng this Act to
referendum, the first one-third of the required
number of signatures to a petition shall be sub-
mitted within 30 days after its passage If the first
one-third of the required number of signatures is
submitted to the Secretary of State within 30
days after its passage, the time for the Act to
take effect and for filing the remainder of the
signatures to complete the petition shall be ex-
tended for an additional 30 days
'"' Thus amended by Chapter 548, Acts of 1976, ratified No
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Constitution of Maryland/843
(c) In this Article, "pass" or "passed" means
any final action upon any Act or part of an Act
by both Houses of the General Assembly, and
"enact" or "enacted" means approval of an Act
or part of an Act by the Governor
(d) Signatures on a petition for referendum on
an Act or part of an Act may be signed at any
time after the Act or part of an Act is passed
SEC. 4.^ A petition may consist of several
papers, but each paper shall contain the full text,
or an accurate summary approved by the Attor-
ney General, of the Act or part of Act petitioned
upon There shall be attached to each paper of
signatures filed with a petition an affidavit of the
person procunng the signatures on such paper
that of the person's best knowledge and belief
every signature on it is genuine and bona tide,
and that the signers are registered voters of the
State of Maryland, and of the City of Baltimore,
or County, as the case may be, as set opposite
their names The General Assembly shall pre-
senbe by law the form of the petition for referen-
dum, the manner for venfying the authenticity of
petitions and other administrative procedures nec-
essary and not in conflict with this Article
SEC. 5. (a) The General Assembly shall pro-
vide for furnishing the voters of the State the text
of all measures to be voted upon by the people,
provided, that until otherwise provided by law
the same shall be published in the manner pre-
senbed by Article XIV of the Constitution for
the publication of proposed Constitutional
Amendments
(b) All laws referred under the provisions of
this Article shall be submitted separately on the
ballots to the voters of the people, but if contain-
ing more than two hundred words, the full text
shall not be pnnted on the ofheial ballots, but
the Secretary of State shall prepare and submit a
ballot title of each such measure in such form as
to present the purpose of said measure concisely
and intelligently The ballot title may be distinct
from the legislative title, but in any case the leg-
islative title shall be sufficient Upon each of the
ballots, following the ballot title or text, as the
case may be, of each such measure, there shall be
pnnted the words "For the referred law" and
"Against the referred law," as the case may be
The votes cast for and against any such referred
law shall be returned to the Govenor in the man-
ner presenbed with respect to proposed amend-
ments to the Constitution under Article
"° Thus amended by Chapter 548, Acts of 1976 ratified No-
,ra»tlt«r ^ 101^