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The Maryland Senate Republican Caucus website, MDSenateGOP.COM, is one site you should visit often.
Maryland is knocking on the door of bankruptcy due to the spending habits of our Democrat elected Senators and Representatives. If you and your friends need to know why the state of Maryland is in such desperate financial condition, click on this link MDSenateGOP.COM and read the daily posts explaining why the current administration can't get control of the budget, where they have gone wrong and what Republican policy will do to correct the problems.
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Kittleman to Miller, open the process
Annapolis, January 19, 2010
The Joint Republican Caucus of the Maryland General
Assembly sent a letter to Senate President Mike Miller
and House Speaker Mike Busch today urging the presiding
officers to implement administrative measures to make the
legislative process in Annapolis more open to the general public.
The transparency issue was presented on the Senate floor
today when Minority Leader Allen Kittleman and Minority
Whip Nancy Jacobs proposed rule changes that would
require the expeditious posting of committee votes on the
legislative website and specific language in the rules to
ensure that citizens are allowed in committee voting sessions
under the state "open meeting" provisions. In response,
Democrat leaders expressed reluctance to adopt these
transparency rules.
The proposed Senate rules will be considered at a Rules
Committee meeting yet-to-be-scheduled. In the House,
proposed rule changes will be taken up later on the House
floor later this week.
Senator Kittleman calls for Constitutional Convention
"It shall be the duty of the General Assembly to provide by Law for taking, at the general election to be held in the year nineteen hundred and seventy, and every twenty years thereafter, the sense of the People in regard to calling a Convention for altering this Constitution." Constitution of Maryland, Article XIV, Section 2.
The Constitution of Maryland governs the three branches of state government as well as provides the framework for enabling local governments in the state. The current Constitution was adopted by a Constitutional Convention in 1867 and ratified by the citizens of Maryland that same year.
The current Constitution has been amended through the years but only after each provision is ratified by the citizens of the State at a General Election. Article XIV provides that proposed amendments must be passed by the General Assembly before ratification by the voters of the state.
A new Constitution containing major changes was proposed under the Constitutional Convention of 1967-68. When the People spoke, the proposed State Constitution was rejected by the voters at a Special Election on May 14, 1968.
The citizens of Maryland added a provision to the Constitution in 1956 that requires the General Assembly to gauge the "sense of the People" every twenty years with regard to calling a Constitutional Convention.
With respect to the Constitution of Maryland and the voice of the People, Minority Leader Allan Kittleman has joined with the Senate leadership in sponsoring the bill mandated by the Constitution which has been introduced this session as Senate Bill 26.
"This obviously is not the time to change the Constitution of Maryland or bear the expense of a Constitutional Convention," said Senator Kittleman. "But I take my Constitutional duties seriously and abide by its provisions that the People shall be heard. I predict that they will vote at the polls a resounding NO!"
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