Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1954-10-14


The voters of Maryland will
decide the fate of the Municipal
Home Rule CONSTITUTE o n
Amendment at the polls on No
vember 2. This vote will also de.
termine if the Maryland General
Assembly will be able to devote
approximately twenty percent
more of its time to the consid-
GRAFTON of statewide issues.
AS long ago as 1910, a report
of the Research Division of the
Maryland Legislative Council
stated Local bills make unwar-
rented demands upon the time
of the legislative body as a whole
and upon the time of the indi-
vidual legislator.
According to a 1852 report of
the Commission on Administra-
tive Organization of the State,
municipal home rule in Maryland
would result in a twenty percent
reduction in the Workload of the
General Assembly. At the pres
ent time all the laws governing
a municipality are enacted by the
state legislature as individual To-
cal laws. This includes all new
charters and amendments to
charters for the 143 Incorporated
cities and towns in the state.
At the 1851 session of the Gen.
eral Assembly, 357 public local
laws, applicable to one county or
town, were passed. These local
laws represented fifty percent of
the total legislative product. Of
ten other acts, classified as gen.
eral laws, are applicable to only
one town or county. These local
general laws provide exceptions
to general laws for one subdivi-
sion. During the 1851 session, 142
of these hybrid laws were en-
acted. Altogether, seventy per-
cent of the bills passed in 1851
pertained to one county or one
municipality.
The 1853 General Assembly en-
acted total of 785 laws of
which 432 were local and 1877 To-
cal-general laws. Thus, seventy
nine percent of the total legisla-
tive output in 1853 applied to
individual local governments. APP
proXimately 200 of these laws
pertained to municipalities.
Apparently the proportion of
local laws is constantly increas-
ing. A subcommittee of the State |
Bar Association found that at
the 1902 and 1904 sessions of |
the General Assembly, forty-five
and fifty-siX percent of the laws
were local in application. An esti-
mate of the years between 1924
and 1889 placed the average num-
Der of local laws at fifty-nine per-
cent. A count for the 1889 ses-
sion put the proportion of local
laws at sixty-five percent.
Although a local bill is usual
ly passed without floor debate
if it has the recommendation of
the delegates from the county
concerned, such bill must go
through the same procedures as
a general bill. 1t is read three
times before both the House of
Delegates and the Senate. Each
bill is referred to a committee;
hearings are held in Annapolis
on most bills. The bill is voted
on by both houses and when
passed it is given to the Attorney
General to be examined for le-
gality, and signed or vetoed by
the Governor.
The Municipal Home Rule
Amendment would release the
legislators from having to con-
slider the problems of each city
and town separately. Instead,
these issues would be decided by
the municipal officers of the in
dividual towns and the voters of
the town in a municipal election.
The legislators in Annapolis
would be free from the burden
of considering these local issues
and have an estimated twenty
percent more time to devote to
important statewide issues.