April 11, 2011:
The Session's Last Day for 2011

From the MD Senate GOP Website

The Governor's vehicle passed slowly near the State House last Friday as Gov. Martin O'Malley lowered the passenger window and stuck his head out of the car. "What bills of mine are you going to kill today?" he shouted sarcastically to a nearby legislator.

Video Main Page Endorsements show wide support Key Legislative Areas: See What Nancy Has Been Working On for Maryland.

It has been that kind of a session for O'Malley this year.

Fortunately for O'Malley, Sine Die 2011 (i.e. the last day of the legislative session) is today.

"Momentum Fails O'Malley as Some Key Goals Falter" is a headline article from Sunday's Washington Post. John Wagner and Aaron C. Davis provide an analysis about O'Malley's inability to cajole legislators into passing his septic and offshore wind power legislation (click here):

Although O'Malley won reelection by a wider margin than any Maryland governor in nearly 20 years, he made few promises during the campaign. Lawmakers returned in January without a clear sense of what he wanted to accomplish... When O'Malley delivered his State of the State speech Feb. 3, the only major new initiative in the address, the plan to help the Chesapeake Bay by banning construction of most septic systems, was met with near silence. By that time, trouble had been brewing on the legislation he would push hardest: the offshore wind bill. A week before the speech, lawmakers who had backed O'Malley's reelection openly questioned whether offshore wind might cost residents more and produce fewer jobs than his administration had begun to suggest. Weeks later at a House hearing, O'Malley was faulted for what critics thought was an unimaginative and unsatisfying endorsement of the offshore wind bill, which would have forced utilities to buy wind energy at a premium and then divide the higher cost among ratepayers.

By the end of Sine Die tonight, O'Malley will know exactly which of his bills will die. Many of his key issues are still unresolved including a bail-out plan for horseracing and a venture fund called InvestMaryland (A review of many unresolved issues that legislators face today is provided in the Washington Post click here).

After campaigning against all tax hikes last fall, O'Malley has worked "behind the scenes" to accelerate the proposed alcohol tax. Instead of a three-year phase-in as passed by the Senate, O'Malley's budget staffers helped convinced the House to make the entire 50% tax increase take effect by July 1 of this year. (A report on the House debate is in the Baltimore Sun click here)

TAXPAYERS BEWARE! If the Senate accepts this plan by midnight tonight, it will provide an additional $56 million in taxes on Marylanders.

Yes. This was not a good session for Maryland taxpayers. In addition to the alcohol tax, they will see a multitude of fees and assessments rise under O'Malley's budget-balancing plan.

Nor was it a good session for O'Malley. His out-of-state travel and frequent trips to Washington, D.C., were meant to groom his ambitions and broaden his national exposure as he yearns for higher office. But as the Washington Post points out: "His rising national profile has done little to help him pass tough bills in Maryland."