WILLIAM DONALD SCHAEFER, Governor                        S.B. 689

(5) The County Commissioners [of Dorchester County] shall levy [for each
of the years 1979, 1980, and 1981] EACH YEAR on the assessable property of Dorchester
County the amounts to be paid to the several volunteer fire companies as determined by
the County Commissioners in accordance with this subsection. Before the County
Commissioners are required to pay these moneys to the respective fire companies, the
Commissioners may require the officers of the fire companies to appear before them and
show to the satisfaction of the Commissioners that any sums of money paid by the
Commissioners to the fire companies under this subsection in prior years have been
expended for the purposes set forth in this subsection and also that the fire companies are
active fire-fighting organizations. If any of the fire companies ceases to remain an active
fire-fighting organization or has not used the moneys appropriated to them for the sole
purposes set forth in this subsection, the County Commissioners shall allocate the
unexpended funds to the contingent fund of Dorchester County.

[(6) The minimum amounts to be paid and distributed to the volunteer fire
companies in Dorchester County for the year 1981 shall also apply to 1982 and
subsequent years unless they are increased by an act of the General Assembly or by the
Dorchester County Commissioners. The provision for levying amounts to be paid to the
fire companies shall also apply to 1982 and subsequent years. The County Commissioners
shall specify the amount to be received by Elliotts Volunteer Fire Company.]

EXPLANATION: Article 25, § 3(w)(2) through (6) requires the Dorchester County
Commissioners to make a certain minimum appropriation to specified fire
companies in 1979, 1980, and 1981. The 1981 minimum amounts are to remain
in effect in subsequent years. References to 1979 and 1981 are deleted as
obsolete. Since this provision establishes an annual minimum appropriation,
the specific reference to 1981 also is deleted. Since the figures are statutory
minimums, the qualification, "unless [the amounts] are increased by an act of
the General Assembly or by the Dorchester County Commissioners" is
repealed as implicit.

[28.

(a)     Unless otherwise provided in the public local laws of a county, the county
commissioners of the several counties shall receive three dollars per day for each day they
shall be engaged in the discharge of their duties, and mileage at the rate of ten cents for
every mile over five miles from their places of residence.

(b)     The following vary the above:

The County Commissioners of Baltimore County shall receive a salary of one
thousand dollars per year each, including mileage, payable monthly by the treasurer of
that county; and the County Commissioners of Baltimore County shall meet at their office
in the courthouse in Towson on Tuesday and Wednesday of each week, and to meet daily
for the transaction of the public business from the first Tuesday in March until after the
annual levy is made.

(c)     The compensation for the County Commissioners of Talbot County shall be as
set forth in Article 21 of the Code of Public Local Laws of Maryland.

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