Article XII, Maryland Constitution

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Article XII of the Maryland Constitution is entitled Public Works and consists of three sections.

Section 1

Text of Section 1: The Governor, the Comptroller of the Treasury and the Treasurer, shall constitute the Board of Public Works in this State. They shall keep a journal of their proceedings, and shall hold regular sessions in the City of Annapolis, on the first Wednesday in January, April, July and October, in each year, and oftener, if necessary; at which sessions they shall hear and determine such matters as affect the Public Works of the State, and as the General Assembly may confer upon them the power to decide.

Section 2

Text of Section 2: They shall exercise a diligent and faithful supervision of all Public Works in which the State may be interested as Stockholder or Creditor, and shall appoint the Directors in every Railroad and Canal Company, in which the State has the legal power to appoint Directors, which said Directors shall represent the State in all meetings of the Stockholders of the respective Companies for which they are appointed or elected. They shall require the Directors of all said Public Works to guard the public interest, and prevent the establishment of tolls which shall discriminate against the interest of the citizens or products of this State, and from time to time, and as often as there shall be any change in the rates of toll on any of the said Works, to furnish the said Board of Public Works a schedule of such modified rates of toll, and so adjust them as to promote the agricultural interests of the State; they shall report to the General Assembly at each regular session, and recommend such legislation as they may deem necessary and requisite to promote or protect the interests of the State in the said Public Works; they shall perform such other duties as may be hereafter prescribed by Law, and a majority of them shall be competent to act. The Governor, Comptroller and Treasurer shall receive no additional salary for services rendered by them as members of the Board of Public Works.

Amendments

• Amended with the approval of Chapter 99, Acts of 1956, on November 6, 1956.

Section 3

Text of Section 3: (a) The Board of Public Works is hereby authorized, subject to such regulations and conditions as the General Assembly may from time to time prescribe, to sell the State's interest in all works of Internal Improvement, whether as a stockholder or a creditor, and also the State's interest in any banking corporation, receiving in payment the bonds and registered debt now owing by the State, equal in amount to the price obtained for the State's said interest. (b) The Board of Public Works may not approve the sale, transfer, exchange, grant, or other permanent disposition of any State-owned outdoor recreation, open space, conservation, preservation, forest, or park land without the express approval of the General Assembly or of a committee that the General Assembly designates by statute, resolution, or rule.

Amendments

• Amended with the approval of Chapter 362, Acts of 1890, on November 3, 1891.
• Amended with the approval of Maryland Disposition of Park Lands Act, Question 1 (2006) on November 7, 2006.

See also

• State constitution
• Constitutional article
• Constitutional amendment
• Constitutional revision
• Constitutional convention
• Amendments
  • Initiated constitutional amendment
  • Legislatively-referred constitutional amendment
  • Publication requirements for proposed state constitutional amendments
  • Rules about constitutional conventions in state constitutions
  • State constitutional articles governing state legislatures

External links

Suggest a link

• Maryland.gov, "Maryland Constitution"
• From The Archives of Maryland, "Constitutional Records"
• Maryland.gov, "Statewide Ballot Question Results"
• Teaching American History in Maryland, "Maryland Constitutions", a list of primary and secondary resources about the Maryland Constitution and its history.

Additional reading

• Friedman, Dan (2006). The Maryland State Constitution: A Reference Guide, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing
• Rees, Charles A. (2007). "Remarkable Evolution: The Early Constitutional History of Maryland" in University of Baltimore Law Review, Vol. 36, No. 2, 2007
• Ridgway, Whitman H. (2001). "(Maryland in) the Nineteenth Century" from the Maryland Humanities Council
• Berg-Andersson, Richard E. (2004). "Constitutions of the Several states" from The Green Papers