The Maryland General Assembly is heading into its last week of the 2011 session with a number of big-ticket items still on tap, including bills that would grant lower tuition rates to illegal immigrants and impose tax increases on alcohol and motor fuel. The Senate sent the House a bill that would provide in-state tuition for undocumented students at Maryland public universities and colleges. Illegal immigrants must live in Maryland and file tax returns for three years before they would be eligible for the lower rates.
The legislation is one of the few remaining on the assembly’s social agenda, after a measure that would have legalized same-sex marriage failed in the House.
Also on deck in the House is a bill that would increase the sales tax on alcohol from 6 percent to 9 percent over three years — eventually adding 30 cents to every $10 of alcohol sold.
The tax increase passed the Senate 27-19. But neither chamber has taken up a heavily lobbied proposal to increase the levy on alcohol by 10 cents a drink. The proposal, which also was introduced last year, would direct most of the revenues to services for the developmentally disabled.
Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. said the onus is on the House of Delegates to get moving on major legislation.
“The House is being too slow,” said Miller, D-Calvert and Prince George’s counties.
Both chambers also have dodged bills that would increase the state’s 23.5-cents-per-gallon gasoline tax.
Sen. Rob Garagiola, D-Germantown, said he hasn’t given up hope.
“[Bills] that people thought were on the verge of death can get a second chance in the last days of session,” Garagiola said. The legislature will take up the gas tax increase in the fall during a special session devoted to redistricting, if it doesn’t pass in the next week, he said.
“I don’t see how we cannot [raise the gas tax],” he said. “We need more dollars.”
House Minority Leader Del. Anthony O’Donnell said the gas tax is a no-go, but offered more hope for the alcohol tax.
“The liberals haven’t gotten their tax fix this year, so this may be the one that they are looking for,” said O’Donnell, R-Calvert and St. Mary’s counties. “Most Republicans will be fighting it very strongly.”
One of Gov. Martin O’Malley’s signature bills spurring investments in wind energy
is stuck in House and Senate committees, where legislators worked with the governor’s lobbyists for hours on Friday to work out compromises. Following the Senate committee meeting, Garagiola said he is confident the bill will pass.
The measure would require big utilities to buy wind energy under long-term contracts, though some lawmakers worry that it will drive up ratepayers’ power bills.
The General Assembly is scheduled to adjourn April 11.
