Sine Die! –Friday and Saturday were busy with long sessions in the House of Delegates while we tried to debate and vote on as many of the pending Senate bills as possible. The Senate is doing the same with House bills.  Today we expect to have at least five sessions and then end at the stroke of midnight.  There seems to still be a lot of work to be done and some of the big pieces of legislation have not come out of the committees.

SB142 – Capital Budget of 2010 was the center of attention in today’s House of Delegates session and passed with a vote of 108-33.  The Capital Budget contains bond bills for various projects across the state.  There are slight differences between the Senate and House budgets and these will be ironed out in the Conference Committee and then returned to the chambers for final vote.

Today we received word that the Senate approved my bill HB796 – Property Tax Credit for Homes Formerly Owned by Habitat for Humanity of Charles County.  This bill will enable the Charles County government to allow a phase in of property taxes over a four year period to new owners of former Habitat properties.

For the past two days a major portion of the Session in the House of Delegates has been taken up with discussions on the proposed Fiscal 2011 budget.

The budget each year represents the primary reason for the sessions of the General Assembly and the General Assembly is required to pass a balanced budget before it can adjourn.  This year the responsibility for first review of the Governor’s budget was in the Senate.  The budget crossed to the House of Delegates last week and was reviewed by the Appropriations Committee.  On April 2^nd, SB140 – Budget Bill 2011 and SB141 – Budget Reconciliation and Finance Act of 2010 were passed with a vote of 100 to 35.

At today’s session of the House of Delegates, Delegate Dwyer presented a resolution to impeach Attorney General Doug Gansler for a written decision he recently rendered on recognition of marriages performed in other states.  His resolution was referred to the Judiciary Committee which held a hearing in the afternoon.  His resolution was given an unfavorable report to the House of Delegates.

This evening the Maryland Muslim community held their Community Services Reception in the Miller Building.  The group asked me to give a short report on the bill which would legalize medical marijuana in Maryland.  I am a co-sponsor of this bill and support the bill after hearing of the needless suffering that patients of serious and often terminal illnesses.  These patients often cannot find relief from their pain through other prescribed medicine.  The bill has various safeguards to make sure that only licensed physicians can write prescriptions for this product.