Less clear, as O'Malley (D) and bleary-eyed legislators celebrated at a bill-signing ceremony yesterday, were the wider political ramifications of pushing through $1.4 billion a year in tax increases during a frantic three-week session called to solve the state's chronic budget problems.
"How it plays politically is still up in the air," said Sen. Brian E. Frosh (D-Montgomery). "Will people recognize it as hard choices that had to be made or as government run amok? But by any measure, the governor did an incredible job pulling it together. He was buttonholing people. He was schmoozing people. I don't know if he was threatening people. At points, it was ugly, but it was certainly an impressive effort overall."
By the time they adjourned shortly after 2:30 a.m. yesterday, lawmakers had raised the state's sales, corporate income, tobacco and vehicle titling taxes. And they had overhauled the personal income tax system, which will result in high-end earners paying more.
The legislature also embraced O'Malley's proposal to hold a referendum on legalizing 15,000 slot machines, a truce on an issue that had poisoned the relationship of the legislature's two Democratic presiding officers and had ended in stalemates when Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) was governor.
Lawmakers voted to ... expand access to government-subsidized health care and to raise an additional $400 million a year for transportation priorities.
[Lawmakers said] little was explicitly promised in exchange for legislators' votes. Rather, they said, O'Malley and other administration officials would outline what programs and projects would be possible with new revenue from slots and tax increases as well as the consequences of budget cuts as an alternative. Lawmakers said they were also left with the general impression that administration officials would remember who helped them.In some cases, inducements were offered. The Prince George's County delegation secured the promise of state funding for its hospital system.
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