Delegate asks: Where's the ‘emergency?'

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

It has to do with who is doing the defining.

Lawmakers have an option of calling certain legislation "emergency bills," which means they take effect as soon as the governor signs them. They need a three-fifths majority to pass.

That is spelled out in the Maryland Constitution, which also offers this proviso: Such bills should be "necessary for the immediate preservation of the public health and safety."

That line in the Constitution has led one legislator, Del. Donald H. Dwyer Jr., to decide his voting patterns over the past seven years were "wrong."

Since the start of the session, he has pledged to vote against emergency bills that do not follow the Constitution, even if he is the only one.

Dwyer (R-Anne Arundel) was the lone nay vote Thursday on a bill to create a loan fund to improve drinking water. He stood alone last week opposing a measure to create a foreign trade zone in the Port of Baltimore. And, he was the only one to vote against a bill changing some of the finer points of foreclosure.

"It's not that I don't support the legislation. It's because I don't support the ‘emergency' clause," Dwyer said last week.

He is not voting against all emergency bills. He was part of the unanimous vote supporting a measure changing the bonding requirements for a wholesale distributor of prescription drugs.

Dwyer's efforts have had some effect.

On Saturday, Del. Gail Bates rose to ask Environmental Matters Committee Chairwoman Maggie L. McIntosh why a change in how the state will use park funding needed to be an emergency bill.

"We just wanted it to take effect right away to clarify any money coming through the budget," said McIntosh (D-Baltimore city). "And the sponsor wanted it to be ‘emergency.'"

For her part, Bates (R-Howard) said her question was not in concert with Dwyer's concerns; she supports many emergency bills.

Regardless of what the Constitution says, lawmakers are on firm ground on applying the emergency label liberally.

In a 2006 book on the Maryland Constitution, attorney Dan Friedman wrote: "Although the standard for this designation is given in the constitution as ‘necessary for the immediate preservation of the public health or safety,' courts treat this as a political question not subject to judicial review."

Friedman, by the way, is now the legislature's chief counsel.

Not quite 100 bills are labeled "emergency" this year, according to the General Assembly Web site.

One measure passed last Tuesday would change what records scrap dealers would have to keep.

And another bill passed the following day would extend the time a state-issued construction permit would be valid.

The reason, said sponsor Del. Benjamin S. Barnes, is that federal stimulus money is loosening up credit, meaning stalled projects could be restarted.

"I can't think of a bigger emergency than putting folks back to work," said Barnes (D-Prince George's)

Dwyer was the only one to oppose the measure.

dtallman@gazette.net