(a) The General Assembly of Maryland makes the following declarations of its intent in the enactment of this title. (b) The ports and harbors of this State are assets of value to the entire State. The residents of all parts of this State benefit directly from the waterborne commerce that they attract and service. Any improvement to these ports and harbors that increases their export and import commerce will benefit the people of the entire State. (c) (1) The purpose of this title is to increase the waterborne commerce of the ports in this State and, by doing so, benefit the people of this State. (2) Commerce may be attracted to these areas by: (i) Developing existing facilities to provide quicker, cheaper, and better handling of cargoes; and (ii) Effectively advertising and promoting the facilities and the use of the several port areas. (d) (1) Since existing port and terminal facilities of Baltimore and other port areas have been provided mostly by private enterprise, the General Assembly seeks primarily to improve the facilities and strengthen the workings of the private operators. (2) However, the private operators in the port areas have a public responsibility to provide modern port and harbor facilities suited to the needs of the public that they serve. Therefore, the Administration should have power to obtain information about the rates and practices of private operators, and, while it should assist and encourage the extension and improvement of privately operated port facilities, it also should have the power, if private facilities are inadequate or inadequately operated at any time, to construct and, if necessary, to operate any supplementary public facilities that it considers to be required in the public interest. (e) The development of ports able to attract increasing amounts of waterborne commerce will require the construction of additional modern facilities and installations. A public port authority, using public funds, will be able to construct and, if necessary, operate these facilities and installations if the immediate financial returns are not sufficient to attract private capital. (f) In order to meet increased competition from other states' ports that are operated with public funds either directly as state agencies or indirectly as private operating companies, the Administration should have the authority, subject to approval of the Commission, to operate public port facilities either directly or indirectly in the form and manner that the Commission deems necessary.
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