2276                                               VETOES

Governor

House Bill No. 329

AN ACT concerning

Public Service Commission — Hearings

FOR the purpose of requiring the Public Service Commission
to act on an application for a rehearing of a
Commission decision within a certain time, and
requiring that before defining certain limitations and
extensions for the filing of judicial review of any
decision or order of the Commission, there must be a
rehearing or a denial of a rehearing.

May 29, 1979
Honorable Benjamin L. Cardin
Speaker of the House of Delegates
State House
Annapolis, Maryland 21404

Dear Mr. Speaker:

In accordance with Article II, Section 17 of the
Maryland Constitution, I have today vetoed House Bill 329.

This departmental bill requires the Public Service
Commission to take action on an application for a rehearing
within 30 days. As introduced, the bill also provided that
a person aggrieved by a decision of the Commission had to
exhaust his administrative remedies before he could obtain
judicial review.1/

During the legislative process, the provision relating
to judicial review was amended extensively. The apparent
intent of the amendments was to specify an ordering of
priorities in the administrative and judicial review
procedures that are available to any person aggrieved by a
decision of the Commission after a hearing. These
provisions are meant to be especially pertinent when there
is more than one person aggrieved by the same Commission
decision. For example, the amended bill probably is
intended to provide that none of the parties may file for
judicial review during a period reserved for an
administrative rehearing.

Without undue difficulty, the intent of the amended
bill could have been achieved by language that clearly set
forth the rights of a person aggrieved by a decision of the