Before lawmakers convened for their annual 90 days of legislating (and general bloviation) in Annapolis last January, conventional wisdom was that expectations should be low. The recession has made finances tight and as it's an election year, nobody wants to give offense — whether to special interests, campaign donors or even voters.
Three months later and legislators could very well wrap things up Monday night with forecasters looking absolutely prescient. If a statewide ban on cell phone use while driving and a budget that has been downsized to 2006 levels (but does little to address Maryland's long-term budget deficits) become the most notable accomplishments of 2010, we can all be assured that the seasonal bounty of the General Assembly proved to be thin gruel indeed.
But as often happens in Annapolis, there are any number of pending proposals that, if approved, could radically change that perspective. In the whirlwind of a final day, sometimes remarkable things happen.
Granted, it would take nothing short of a miracle for some of these to see the light of day. Take for instance the handful of good government bills that, given the tribulations of Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, deserve a better fate.
But measures to make government more transparent — even one to make General Assembly votes and hearings more accessible to the general public — have so far gone nowhere. Most disappointingly, legislation to finally test public financing of campaigns for the state Senate and House of Delegates has been bottled up in committee by Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller despite bipartisan support. The modest $2.5 million experiment (financed by public donations already in the state's hands) to free incumbents and challengers from special interest money was apparently to great an assault on the status quo to bear.