Maryland
Article XIV
Sec. 1.
The General Assembly may propose amendments to this Constitution;
provided that each amendment shall be embraced in a separate bill,
embodying the Article or Section, as the same will stand when amended
and passed by three-fifths of all the members elected to each of the two
Houses, by yeas and nays, to be entered on the Journals with the
proposed amendment. The requirement in this section that an
amendment proposed by the General Assembly shall be embraced in a
Legislators like State Senator Frank Morse (R – Albany) and State Representative Larry Galizio (D – Tigard) Larry are talking about reforming the initiative process. For one thing, both want to give the Legislature a chance to review and react to any proposed initiative before it goes to the ballot; once signatures were gathered, the measure would not go directly to the voters, but would go to the Legislature first.
In addition, according to the Register-Guard:
Montgomery County’s anti-tax ballot measure prevailed yesterday by about 5,000 votes, after election officials completed a count of absentee ballots.
The results give sponsor Robin Ficker, a onetime legislator and Bethesda real estate broker, his first victory in a 34-year quest to curb county taxes. But the practical effect for at least the next two years, according to county officials, is largely academic.
A union that represents county employees, including 911 operators, public health nurses and sheriff’s deputies, wants county voters to have a chance to approve a provision giving them binding arbitration in negotiations with the county.
But county officials and the union that represents teachers are questioning tactics being used by an out-of-state firm hired to obtain signatures for the ballot question.
Gov. Martin O’Malley proposed Friday a referendum on slots that would allow up to 15,000 machines in five Maryland locations – including Baltimore – and hand the decision to voters after years of legislative deadlock.