Opinion ID: 1908722
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: Application of Article 8

Text: Appellants argue that the telephone commission concomitantly violates separation of powers principles. Article 8 of the Declaration of Rights provides that the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial powers of Government ought to be forever separate and distinct from each other; and no person exercising the functions of one of said Departments shall assume or discharge the duties of any other. In 1922, the Court held that there are certain powers only the Legislative body possesses and which it may not delegate. One of these non-delegable powers is to enact legislation. In Brawner v. Curran, 141 Md. 586, 601, 119 A. 250 (1922), we examined a statute that was to be submitted to qualified voters in the State general election of 1922. The statute proposed to afford compensation to persons who served in active duty during World War II. The enactment provided that it must be accepted by the voters of Maryland by referendum in order to become effective. Brawner, 141 Md. at 592, 119 A. 250. We held the enactment unconstitutional as an unlawful delegation in contravention of separation of powers principles. We based our conclusion on the text of Article III, §§ 1 (Legislature shall consist of two branches), 27 (bills originate in either House of the General Assembly, three readings required), 28 (majority required for passage of bill or resolution, vote shall be recorded), 29 (style and subject-matter of laws), and 30 (presentment to Governor of bills passed) and Article II, § 17 (Governor to approve bill by signature or reject it by return with objections noted) of the Maryland Constitution. These provisions of the Constitution, we concluded, confer upon the General Assembly of Maryland the exclusive power of making laws in that State because the provisions definitely and inevitably place the responsibility for the enactment of such laws upon each branch of the General Assembly and upon the Executive [with veto powers]. Brawner, 141 Md. at 601, 119 A. 250. [14] Our construction of Articles 14 and 8 is consistent with Brawner because we do not here hold that the Legislature may delegate the power to enact laws. [15] The Legislature must authorize the imposition of government charges for such charges to be valid. The Legislature, however, may choose to delegate the discreet power of setting the amount of government charges so approved to an Executive Branch agency or other governmental body without violating the separation of powers explicitly provided by the Constitution because the setting of fees and taxes is a delegable power. We have so held in Burgess v. Pue, 2 Gill 11 (1844) and Baltimore v. State, 15 Md. 376 (1860). See also State v. Smith, 305 Md. 489, 510-11, 505 A.2d 511, 522 (1986) (citing Baltimore v. State with approval and stating that the branches of state government are separate, but not completely so). In Burgess v. Pue , the legislative enactment at issue provided that a primary school tax be determined and set by the inhabitants of the school district. [16] The Court held valid the Legislature's delegation of these powers to the people paying the tax, stating that there is nothing in the Constitution prohibitory of the delegation of the power of taxation, in the mode adopted, to effect the attainment of it; we may say that grants of similar powers to other bodies, for political purposes, have been coeval with the Constitution itself, and that no serious doubts have ever been entertained of their validity. Id. [17] Again, in Baltimore v. State , the Court upheld a statute delegating the power to levy a tax, but this time to an Executive Branch body. The law at issue created a Police Commission authority in Baltimore City, authorized it to govern the City's police force, set its own budget, and required the City to levy taxes to fund the Commission's budget. The City, like Appellants in the present case, argued that the law violated separation of powers principles because the Legislature delegated its authority to set fees and taxes. The Court concluded that Article 8 is not to be interpreted as enjoining a complete separation between these several departments, based upon evidence of contemporaneous construction, and acquiescence by the people, and the various departments of the government. Baltimore v. State, 15 Md. at 457-58 (citing Burgess ). Furthermore, the Court observed that [t]he power to levy taxes is a sovereign power, and unless committed to some portion of the people, may always be exercised by the Legislature. It is not to be considered as parted with by mere construction, and we have not been referred to any portion of the Constitution which divests it.    Under the old system of levy courts, and tax commissioners, when appointed by the executive, it was never said that they had not power to make assessments and levy taxes. They were not elected by the people, nor accountable to them. They were appointed, under legislative authority, by the executive, and the State exercised its supreme power of taxing the people through their agency. So here, the State chooses to substitute Commissioners in the place of the city authorities for the purpose of levying this tax, and we see no sufficient reason for denouncing the law on that account. That such a power may be delegated, see Burgess v. Pue, 2 Gill 11. Baltimore v. State, 15 Md. at 467-68 (Emphasis added). Thus, the Court held that the power to levy the specific amount of the tax was delegable. Many years later, in Christ v. Department of Natural Resources, 335 Md. 427, 444-45, 644 A.2d 34, 42 (1994), we stated that clearly the Legislature cannot delegate a function which the Constitution expressly and unqualifiedly vests in the General Assembly itself, such as the power to impeach, enact statutes, or propose constitutional amendments. We failed then to include in the list of non-delegable powers the power to set the amount of government charges. The omission was intentional. Furthermore, this Court repeatedly has noted that Article 8 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights does not impose a complete separation between the branches of government. Christ, 335 Md. at 441, 644 A.2d at 40 (Internal quotations omitted) (citing Judy v. Schaefer, 331 Md. 239, 261, 627 A.2d 1039, 1050 (1993); Dep't of Transp. v. Armacost, 311 Md. 64, 81, 532 A.2d 1056, 1064 (1987); Dep't of Natural Res. v. Linchester Sand & Gravel Corp., 274 Md. 211, 220, 334 A.2d 514, 521 (1975)). The delegation by the Legislature of legislative powers to Executive Branch agencies does not by itself usually violate Article 8 if guidelines or safeguards, sufficient under the circumstances, are contained in the pertinent statute or statutes. Id. (Citations omitted). Guidelines, however, are not required uniformly by the Constitution in all cases. The Court has relaxed the necessity for the same many times in light of the complexity of modern conditions with which government must deal. Id. (citing Pressman v. Barnes, 209 Md. 544, 555, 121 A.2d 816, 822 (1956)). In Lussier v. Maryland Racing Commission, for example, we observed that when the Legislature grants broad power to an Executive Branch agency to promulgate regulations in a given area, the agency's regulations are valid unless they contradict the Legislature's express language or purpose in enacting the statute. 343 Md. 681, 688, 684 A.2d 804, 807 (1996). We have repeatedly rejected the argument... that the Legislature [is] required expressly or explicitly to authorize the particular regulatory action. Id. Therefore we ask: does § 10-503, which authorizes the imposition of the telephone commission, and § 3-702 of the State Finance and Procurement Article of the Maryland Code, which grants broad powers to regulate telephone services for State government, properly delegate the power to set the amount of the telephone commission to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM)? [18] We conclude that the Legislature delegated that power properly because § 10-503 created a commission but did not set an amount and § 3-702 of the State Finance and Procurement Article of the Maryland Code granted broad authority to personnel of the DBM to procure telephone services for State government. Also, the existence of the telephone commission and its rates are consistent with the Legislature's intent to raise revenue to finance the Inmate Welfare Fund. We recognize that administrative agencies have become essential to the State's operation. Though administrative agencies are essential, the Court is bound to ensure that those agencies act within the confines of their delegated powers. Here, we conclude that the DBM acted within its delegated power. We therefore hold that the Legislature validly delegated the power to set the rate of the telephone commission by its broad grant of authority to the DBM to regulate the operation of telephone systems in the State's correctional facilities and by the creation of the Inmate Welfare Fund to be funded by a commission to be charged on non-emergency, collect telephone calls placed by inmates. Because the power to set fees and charges may be delegated to administrative agencies, § 10-503 does not violate Article 8 of the Declaration of Rights. We conclude also that the absence in § 10-503 of direction for fixing the amount of the telephone commission does not violate separation of powers principles because there exists a legislative check on the Executive agency-established fee schedule. The Legislature is aware of the fee schedule and may, if it chooses, change it at anytime. [19]