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Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley signed into law a package of tax increases Tuesday targeting six-figure earners, tobacco users and companies engaged in real estate transactions to cover record spending on education. In a two-hour ceremony, it was easily the most recognizable measure O’Malley (D) signed but hardly the most popular. Rather, union members, minorities and interest groups crowded the State House to celebrate more than 200 lesser-known and often narrowly tailored bills. They passed the General Assembly with little fanfare but, taken together, will color the state’s social and political identity a slightly deeper shade of blue. The bills included...

ANNAPOLIS — Maryland health advocates are celebrating an upcoming tax increase on cigars and smokeless tobacco, but they aren’t stopping there. Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, is expected to sign a bill Tuesday that will raise the state’s tax on non-cigarette tobacco products for the first time since 1999, in an effort to combat what state health officials say is increased use of the products among teens. The measure is part of $260 million in tax increases that were approved during last week’s special session and will be signed into law Tuesday. About $247 million of the increases will come...

After voting this week to raise income tax rates on the state’s highest earners, Maryland lawmakers aren’t ruling out more tax increases next year. The General Assembly passed legislation that will raise taxes on the top 14 percent of earners in an effort to balance the state’s $35.5 billion budget and cut half of Maryland’s $1 billion structural deficit, which measures expected revenue shortfalls in the future. Lawmakers could look to eliminate the remaining $500 million deficit over the next year by methods such as expanding gambling in the state, cutting spending or passing a long-debated tax increase to fund...

After discussing and debating the state’s finances behind closed doors for the past month, the Maryland General Assembly will convene Monday to start debating a revenue package during a special session. Lawmakers will hold public hearings and consider amendments on a pair of bills meant to supplement the state’s budget largely by raising income taxes. But the details of the bills appear all but set in stone, having been finalized in recent weeks during closed-door negotiations among Democratic leaders who say the bills will likely pass with few or no changes. House and Senate leaders say they did most of...

When Marylanders go to the polls in November, the most interesting races might not involve political candidates. The state’s voters will elect eight members of the U.S. House of Representatives and one U.S. senator, and will help choose a president, but an unprecedented slate of ballot initiatives is expected to set the state’s course on social issues, including same-sex marriage and illegal immigration, and potentially on gambling and congressional redistricting. This will be the first time in 20 years that a voter-petitioned referendum makes the state’s ballot, and as many as three could appear. All were initiated by Republicans who...

ANNAPOLIS — The General Assembly likely will return May 14 for a two- or three-day special session on a revenue package including income-tax increases and a shift of state-paid teacher-pension costs onto counties, state officials said Wednesday. Democratic leaders say the extra revenues are needed to bolster the state’s $35.4 billion spending plan and undo more than $500 million in cuts that went into effect when last-minute bickering caused the assembly to adjourn April 9 without passing two key revenue bills. The House and Senate still have slightly differing proposals to raise taxes, but leaders said they are making progress...

With the Maryland General Assembly looking toward two possible special sessions this year, some lawmakers are calling for an expanded agenda to address long-term transportation funding. Gov. Martin O'Malley and House leaders have made clear that they want to devote a May special session exclusively to passing new revenue and income-tax increases to supplement a $35.4-billion budget that currently includes more than $500 million in cuts because of the assembly’s failure to pass a revenue package during the regular session. Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, said Tuesday that is his only priority for a May special session. Other proposals would have...

ANNAPOLIS — Gov. Martin O'Malley emerged Tuesday from a much-anticipated meeting with the state’s two leading lawmakers and revealed that he is not only leaning toward calling a special session, but he might even call two of them. Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, said he hopes to bring the General Assembly back into session by mid-May so legislators can pass a set of tax and revenue increases to erase $512 million in cuts that were put into place when the assembly adjourned April 9. The governor said he wants to focus strictly on finances and hold off on debating a gambling...

ANNAPOLIS — Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. is pushing for broader income-tax increases and a last-ditch attempt at expanding gambling as lawmakers look toward a possible special session, but the House appears reluctant to embrace either proposal. Mr. Miller will meet Tuesday with Gov. Martin O'Malley and House Speaker Michael E. Busch to discuss the scope of a potential special session, during which the General Assembly likely would pass several tax and revenue increases to cancel out $512 million in cuts resulting from their failure to pass the increases at the regular session’s close. Mr. Miller is waging...

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley said Thursday he wants to call a special session for lawmakers to raise taxes and reverse $500 million in planned budget cuts but is waiting on House and Senate leaders to meet beforehand and work out a unified plan. During a day in which he conducted several radio and television interviews, the Democratic governor said he would call legislators back to Annapolis “a half-hour from now” but needs assurances that a special session will not include the bickering and gamesmanship that caused a revenue package to fall through Monday on the General Assembly’s last day, triggering...

Although negotiations over a package of tax increases and a proposed casino collapsed Monday night, the Maryland General Assembly passed a lot of bills this session — 791, to be exact. Of those, 96 percent were passed in the last week, including hundreds in the hours and minutes before midnight on Monday. Here are some highlights from the 90-day session’s last day: STORMWATER FEE The Senate spent much of the session’s waning hours fiercely debating a stormwater fee bill that was on few people’s radar earlier in the session. The bill requires localities to fund projects to reduce polluted runoff...

ANNAPOLIS — Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley said Tuesday that the General Assembly’s failure to pass a set of tax increases and revenue enhancements considered a cornerstone of this year’s budget marked “the low point” of his five years in office. Lawmakers ran out of time on the measures when the session expired at midnight Monday, causing a so-called “doomsday budget” to go into effect. The state is facing some $512 million in cuts starting July 1 unless the governor calls a special session before then to generate more revenue and reverse budget cuts, which he seems likely to do. But...

ANNAPOLIS — The General Assembly adjourned Monday night after a chaotic closing session in which members failed to pass a set of proposed tax increases or a bill to expand gambling in the state. Lawmakers passed a balanced budget and hoped to pass accompanying bills raising income taxes and shifting teacher-pension costs onto counties, but they ran out of time before the assembly’s required midnight adjournment. The House attempted to extend the session by passing a resolution shortly before midnight, but the Senate did not address the measure in time. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. said he was...

Gov. Martin O'Malley says he still hopes to convince the legislature to raise money for highway and transit projects — possibly by adding another penny to Maryland's six-percent sales tax and dedicating the extra revenue to transportation. In an interview with The Baltimore Sun, O'Malley conceded that his initial proposal to apply the sales tax to gasoline is dead in the General Assembly. But he said an alternative would be a delayed implementation of that proposal, with the sales tax not being applied until gas prices fell to a certain level. A second option, he said, would be to raise...

ANNAPOLIS — With just a week left in the 2012 General Assembly session, lawmakers have hundreds of bills left to consider. But only a handful of proposals will get most of their attention. The House and Senate still must approve a joint version of the state budget, which they are required to do before adjourning Monday. Legislators also will consider bills that would implement offshore-wind energy and set up a referendum on whether to allow table games and a new casino in Prince George’s County. A conference committee of House and Senate representatives got to work Monday on hashing out...

The House passed the administration’s offshore wind power bill Friday amid accusations Gov. Martin O’Malley secured votes on the House Economic Matters Committee with disparity grants to committee members’ districts. “Those of you who have been here longer than two weeks know there’s a lot of complicated pressures that go into making a bill pass or fail,” said House Minority Leader Anthony O’Donnell. “Sometimes it takes a little nudge, sometimes it takes a carrot, and sometimes it takes a stick.” The disparity grant program in Maryland provides subsidies to jurisdictions with income tax receipts that fall below 75% of the...

ANNAPOLIS — The Maryland Senate passed a $35.9 billion budget package Thursday that would increase income-tax rates on nearly all earners and impose a flat income tax on residents making more than $500,000 a year. The spending plan would boost the state’s income-tax brackets by as much as 0.25 percentage point — a move expected to generate more than $500 million next fiscal year. The budget bill passed after senators narrowly approved an amendment Wednesday night that would allow the state to tax “half-millionaires,” who make more than $500,000 annually, at the maximum 5.75 percent rate for every dollar they...

ANNAPOLIS — Gov. Martin O'Malley told House and Senate lawmakers Wednesday that failing to raise Maryland’s gas tax could lead to crumbling roads and bridges in the future, and that they should pass his proposal despite its lack of popularity with residents. Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, touted his proposed 6 percent sales tax on gas while testifying before the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee and at a joint hearing of the House Ways and Means and Environmental Matters committees. Legislators have said a gas-tax hike appears unlikely during this year’s General Assembly session because of rising gas prices, public outcry...

ANNAPOLIS — Gov. Martin O'Malley will go before House and Senate committees Wednesday and ask them to raise the state’s gas tax, but he might get drowned out by the talk from constituents back in lawmakers’ home districts. Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, has clung to the proposal in recent weeks even as skepticism of the plan has mounted in the face of rising gas prices and persistent objections from the public. The governor says the tax increase is a necessary investment in the state’s congested, too-long-ignored road and transit infrastructure. But with gas prices climbing toward $4 a gallon, leading...

ANNAPOLIS — State budget analysts Tuesday suggested nearly $800 million in potential cuts as part of a “doomsday” budget that Senate leaders have vowed to consider if lawmakers cannot agree on a mix of cuts and revenue increases in this year’s spending plan. The analysts briefed the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee on the reductions, which include cuts to education and health services, elimination of 500 state jobs and more than $300 million in cuts of local aid to counties. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. said lawmakers are determined to make more aggressive cuts than those in Gov....