Padding of .const issue when building a HEX file

I'm working on a project left behind by someone else and I'm running into issues when generating the hex file where it pads the section .const by 1 to a size of 36648 which I believe is causing issues in linking my binary files together. I would like to have an explanation for using -memwidth and -romwidth when defining hex outputs. I currently only use -romwidth 16 for defining things, would -memwidth need to be the same size or could they be different? This is using the MSP430F5418A processor.