Does Maryland Need a BIGGER Legislature?

Today’s Daily Times brings back an issue that keeps raising its head at least every time Maryland must re-draw its legislative boundaries – the fact that Caroline County does not have a resident legislator.  This situation could also apply to Somerset and /or Wicomico counties depending on how the lines are drawn next year.

In theory it sounds so good – make sure that each county has at least one delegate.  Unfortunately, there are only two ways that this can happen:

• The US Supreme Court reverses itself on its “one man – one vote” decisions of the 1960’s AND the Western Shore legislators were stupid enough to go back to the old days of each county getting 1 Senator and at least 3 Delegates.  or …
• You increase the size of the House of Delegates dramatically (it already has 141 members) so that each county has at least one legislative district.

Guess what?  Neither is ever going to happen.  While the federal decisions which stopped Maryland (and other states) from having legislative districts along the same lines as the US House and Senate were wrong (How can they be unconstitutional when the Constitution explicitly calls for that type of apportionment at the Federal level?), the court is unlikely to reverse itself.  Even if it did, the legislators from the Baltimore-DC corridor are unlikely to ever go back to the days when the Eastern Shore, Southern Maryland, and Harford County controlled the legislature.

What about option 2?  First, do we REALLY want more people going to Annapolis to tax and spend us into the poor house?  Second, because of the aforementioned court decisions and the need for minority apportionment it is doubtful that you could draw lines which would GUARANTEE that counties like Caroline would have a resident delegate.

The best solution for us all is to have single member districts.  Don’t expect the legislature to go that route either.  This usually means more Republicans are elected and we all know how well that would fly.