Article XI-F

ARTICLE XI-F¹⁷⁵
HOME RULE FOR CODE COUNTIES.

SECTION 1. For the purposes of this Article, (1)
"code county" means a county which is not a charter
county under Article 11 A of this Constitution and has
adopted the optional powers of home rule provided un-
der this Article; and (2) "public local law" means a law
applicable to the incorporation, organization, or govern-
ment of a code county and contained in the county's
code of public local laws; but this latter term specifical-
ly does not include (i) the charters of municipal corpo-
rations under Article HE of this Constitution, (ii) the
laws or charters of counties under Article HA of this
Constitution, (iii) laws, whether or not Statewide in ap-
plication, in the code of public general laws, (iv) laws
which apply to more than one county, and (v) ordi-
nances and resolutions of the county government
enacted under public local laws.

SEC. 2. The governing body of any county, by a vote
of at least two-thirds of the members elected thereto,
may propose by resolution that the county become a
code county and be governed by the provisions of this
Article. Upon the adoption of such a resolution, it shall
be certified to the Board of Supervisors of Elections in
the county, which Board (pursuant to the election laws
of the State) shall submit to the voters of the county at
the next ensuing general election the question whether
the resolution shall be approved or rejected. If in the
referendum a majority of those persons voting on this
question vote for the resolution, the resolution is ap-
proved, and the county shall become a code county un-
der the provisions of this Article, on the thirtieth day
after the election. If in the referendum a majority of
those persons voting on this question vote against the
resolution, the resolution is rejected, and of no further
effect.

Provided that if at the next ensuing general election
there shall be submitted to the voters of the county a
proposed charter under Article HA of this Constitu-
tion, the proposed charter only shall be submitted to
the voters at that next ensuing general election. If the
proposed charter is adopted by the voters, this particu-
lar 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 submitted to
the voters at the general election two years later, and
no charter question under Article HA shall be submit-
ted to the voters at that general election.

SEC. 3. Except as otherwise provided in this Article,
a code county may enact, amend, or repeal a public lo-
cal 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 special or local in its terms
or effect within a code county. The General Assembly
may enact, amend, or repeal public local laws applica-
ble to code counties only by general enactments which

Constitution of Maryland/697

in term and effect apply alike to all code counties in
one or more of the classes provided for in Section 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 Federal or State census or upon such
other criteria as determined by the General Assembly to
be appropriate. Not more than one such grouping of
code counties into four (or fewer) classes may be in ef-
fect at any one time, and the enactment of any group-
ing 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 resolution of the
board of county commissioners. The General Assembly
may amplify the provisions of this section by general
law in any manner not inconsistent with this Article.

SEC. 7. Any action of a code county in the enact-
ment, 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 enactment, amendment, or
repeal shall be effective unless a petition of the regis-
tered voters of the county requires that it be submitted
to a referendum of the voters in the county. The Gener-
al Assembly shall amplify the provisions of this section
by general law in any manner not inconsistent with this
Article, except that in any event the number of signa-
tures 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 exclusive 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 property taxes which may be imposed by the
code county; or (2) authorizes or regulates the maxi-
mum amount of indebtedness which may be incurred by
the code county. Public local laws enacted by the Gen-
eral Assembly under this section prevail over any public
local laws enacted by the code county under other sec-
tions 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 un-
der 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 Consti-
tution shall remain in effect until amended or repealed
under this Constitution. Every public local law enacted,
amended, or repealed by a county under the provisions
of this Article prevails over the previous public local
law, except to the extent it is subject to an applicable
law enacted by the General Assembly.