MARVIN MANDEL, Governor                       3079

Letter from State Law Department on Senate Bill No. 788

May 23, 1974.

The Honorable Marvin Mandel
Governor of Maryland
State House
Annapolis, Maryland 21404

Re: Senate Bill 788
Dear Governor Mandel:

Senate Bill 788 provides for an increase in the
salary of the Treasurer of Calvert County and of the
Deputy Treasurer of Calvert County and, as a result of
the amendments added to the bill after its introduction,
also authorizes the County Commissioners of Calvert
County to lend or grant public funds to certain medical
organizations to cover the cost of construction of
certain streets and related facilities. A review of this
bill and of the applicable law has led us to conclude
that it is in direct violation of the provisions of
Section 29 of Article III of the Maryland Constitution,
to the effect that "Every law enacted by the General
Assembly shall embrace but one subject...".

We recognize the established principle that this
provision of the Constitution is to be liberally
construed and that there is a strong presumption in favor
of the validity of statutes enacted by the General
Assembly. See Bond v. State, 78 Md. 523 (1894) and

discussion in Panitz v._Comptroller, 247 Md. 501 (1969),

(involving the related provisions of Section 52(8) of
Article III of the Maryland Constitution pertaining to
supplementary appropriation bills). See also Everstine,

Titles of Legislative Acts, 9 Md. L. R. 197, 218 (1948).

The Court of Appeals has stated that the basic test to be
applied in determining whether a law embraces more than
one subject is whether or not all portions of the statute
are "germane" or whether they are foreign to one another.

Neuenschwander v. Washington Suburban Sanitary

Commission, 187 Md. 67, 77 (1946). "Germane" has been
defined as meaning in close relationship to one another,
appropriate, relevant, or pertinent to the general
subject. Sutherland, Statutory Construction, Vol. 1A,
Section 17.03 (Sands 4th Ed. 1972). In another case the
Court of Appeals, in upholding a law providing for
annexation and subsequent zoning of annexed land, noted
with approval an earlier opinion (Baltimore__City v.