Court Opinion

ID: 9645824
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 21:36:25.369289+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:32.057848
License: Public Domain

*304
Murphy, C. J,

dissenting:

Even if the majority’s construction of the charter amendment as prohibiting only the use of Baltimore City public funds and credit in the construction of a new stadium in the city is accepted, an irreconcilable conflict nevertheless exists between the amendment and the Maryland Sports Complex Authority Act (the Act), Maryland Code (1957,1971 Repl. Vol., 1974 Cum. Supp.) Art. 41, §§ 141-152J.
The Act, a public general law, establishes a state agency known as the Maryland Sports Complex Authority. § 144 (a). The Act provides in § 145 (a) that it is the purpose of the Authority “to provide for a sports complex and related facilities in the Greater Baltimore Region for professional sports teams, athletic contests, and other activities; to provide for other revenue-producing facilities in the environs of the sports complex in order to help defray the costs of constructing, maintaining and operating the sports complex; and to provide for the financing of the sports complex and other facilities in such manner that the revenues derived therefrom, as well as from any other authorized sources, completely pay for the construction, maintenance and operation of the complex and facilities so that no State funds shall be needed or used.” As defined in § 143 (d), the Greater Baltimore Region within which the sports complex and related facilities must be built embraces Baltimore City and the five surrounding counties of Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford, and Howard. The Act invests the Authority with a wide range of powers to effectuate its governmental purposes, including the power to issue bonds, notes and other obligations, to borrow money from any governmental entity, and to receive and accept from such governmental entities, except the State of Maryland, contributions, gifts, or grants of money or property. §§ 145-150. Section 152 (c) provides that bonds and notes issued by the Authority are securities in which political subdivisions of the State may legally and properly invest. In a “Declaration of legislative findings and policy” accompanying the Act, the General Assembly declared “that *305professional sports add to the economy, the culture and the vitality of Baltimore City, the Greater Baltimore Region and the entire State of Maryland”; that “[p]rofessional sports stimulate tourism and familiarize people from all parts of the country with the advantages of the Baltimore metropolitan area and with Maryland generally”; that professional sports “stimulate business and provide extensive employment opportunities, not merely for the athletes and personnel directly involved in the sports enterprise but for thousands of other Marylanders”; that “[p]rofessional sports also provide the citizens of this State with a great deal of enjoyment and recreation in watching athletic contests”; and that it is the policy of the State of Maryland “[b]ecause of these public benefits, ... to encourage and assist the retention of professional sports activities in the Baltimore metropolitan area . . . .” Section 142.
From the foregoing provisions, it is wholly apparent that the Legislature contemplated in particular that political subdivisions comprising the Greater Baltimore Region would be empowered, and would retain the authority, to participate financially in the construction of a sports complex. It is true, of course, that Baltimore City would not be required to give, lend or invest funds for that purpose, but the Act plainly invests the City with discretion to do so. The charter amendment totally circumscribes — indeed cancels — the City’s authority in this respect. At the same time, the amendment diminishes the Authority’s powers. In effect, the charter provision amends the Act so that the Authority cannot borrow from any governmental entity or accept gifts from any public source or issue bonds and notes in which any public agency can invest. Indeed, the prime source — Baltimore City — is eliminated. Thus, the charter amendment prohibits what the public general law has permitted, City of Baltimore v. Sitnick, 254 Md. 303, 317, 255 A. 2d 376, 382 (1969), and must fall as in direct conflict with State law in violation of Article XI-A of the Constitution of Maryland. County Council v. Investors Funding, 270 Md. *306403, 312 A. 2d 225 (1973); Heubeck v. City of Baltimore, 205 Md. 203, 107 A. 2d 99 (1954).
Under the majority’s opinion, each of the home rule counties, which along with Baltimore City, comprise the area in which the sports complex is to be constructed, would be permitted to enact similar amendments to their charters and thus assure the destruction of a public general law enacted by the General Assembly for the benefit of all the people of the State. Such a result is completely at odds with the Constitution of Maryland.
I am authorized to say that Judge Orth concurs in this dissent.