At midnight on Monday April 7, 2008, balloons and confetti dropped from the balcony of the House of Delegates amid cheers and applause as the 2008 session of the Maryland General Assembly came to an official end. An outsider would have thought that everyone in that room was celebrating a successful and fruitful legislative session. Indeed, the majority would agree with this. But a few of us, myself included, saw more to despise than to celebrate.

Indeed, the last few hours of the session included one major success: the very expensive, job-costing bill entitled Global Warming Solutions Act died in my committee with a vote of something like 20-2. I fought hard against this bill as worker after worker after worker contacted me about their fear of losing their livelihood. Finally, their presence in Annapolis was felt by just about everyone in the last few days and their pleas were heard.

A bill that would have allowed for illegal immigrants to receive in-state college tuition did not pass out of the House Ways and Means Committee. This is a huge step for those of us who are against this concept. This same bill not only passed out of committee last year, but was favorably voted out of the full House of Delegates. Perhaps progress is being made in this area.

I wish I could say the same about the energy initiatives. Empower Maryland, Greenhouse Gas Initiatives, The Renewable Portfolio Standard Bill, and the bill to enact the Governor’s settlement with Constellation Energy will offer little to no relief to BGE ratepayers. I voted against all of these bills, not only in my committee, but on the full House vote. Despite vehement testimony against these pieces of legislation, they all passed and will be signed into law by the governor.

A few bills defining “Domestic Partner” were passed. They deal with health care decision-making and tax exemptions for people in a “domestic partnership”. I voted against both of these. Ironically, the bill to define marriage as between one man and one woman never even made it out of the House Judiciary Committee.

The Harford County Delegation once again worked very hard to pass legislation calling for a blended school board made up of appointed and elected members. Senator Glassman was able to get his senate version passed unanimously in the senate but the House delegation had a harder time. The bottom line is that the bill died in the House Ways and Means Committee at the hands of its chairwoman, Sheila Hixson. We can speculate till we’re blue in the face, but there is really no way we’ll know what was being done behind closed doors to kill this bill. And no amount of threatening and mean-spirited comments will change that fact. I will work again next year to craft another compromise bill with all members of the delegation so that we can stand united and unanimous as we proceed.

Finally, there was the Computer Tech Tax Repeal. This bill was a trap from the very beginning for Republicans. Very few republicans voted for the tech tax during the Special Session. We all worked hard on legislation this year to repeal it and replace the revenue with additional cuts in state spending. Unfortunately, the only bill allowed out for a vote was one to add an additional tax on millionaires. As I told a lot of you, replacing one bad policy with another is NOT progress. Small businesses will continue to suffer because of it. Additionally, many of you asked me not to favor any cuts to the Transportation Trust Fund. This repeal legislation does that by $50 million. And with Harford County set to receive $58 million in much needed roads funds, I could not, in good conscience, vote for this particular repeal bill.

In the next few weeks, I will try to get a list together of all the bills that were passed this year. In the meantime, feel free to look on www.mlis.state.md.us for any particular bill or subject matter important to you. I remain committed to serving you as one of your representatives in state government. Feel free to contact me at donna.stifler@house.state.md.us or by phone at 410.638.8823 in my district office.

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Summary of the 2007 Special Session