Maryland’s state lawmakers wrapped up their work for the year on Monday, tying up loose ends on the state budget, education reforms and energy policy.

The final day, known as “Sine Die” after the formal motion to adjourn at midnight, is typically festive. But with a cold rain falling and the weight of 90 days’ worth of difficult decisions, Annapolis was more somber.

Lawmakers took votes to raise taxes and cut spending, all the while looking over their shoulder at Washington, D.C., where Republicans are slashing jobs and funding with threats of more to come. They struggled to rewrite energy policy to encourage more power generation while helping consumers and not abandoning efforts for clean energy.

They went down to the wire negotiating how best to protect immigrants at risk of being arrested or deported by increasingly aggressive federal enforcement actions.

“It’s definitely one of the most challenging sessions I’ve had in 11 years down here,” said Del. David Moon, a Montgomery County Democrat and the House of Delegates majority leader. “But at the end of the day, I really feel good that we really rose and tried to dig in and make the difficult decisions that needed to be made.”

Del. Malcolm Ruff, a Baltimore Democrat, said the conversations in Annapolis were similar to those happening at kitchen tables across the state: “Making tough decisions based on the situation we find ourselves in, and figuring out how we best move forward, while prioritizing the values that we collectively share.”

Revisiting education ‘blueprint’

In the waning hours, lawmakers settled on how much to rework the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, the state’s ambitious and expensive plan intended to improve public schools.

Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, proposed scaling back elements of the plan to save $1.6 billion over four years, including a four-year pause of a requirement to give teachers more out-of-classroom time to plan and collaborate with each other and nixing a planned increase in funding for community schools that serve high-poverty neighborhoods. He also proposed beefing up efforts to recruit teachers and scaling back funding for a mental health program.

Under complex education funding formulas, the four-year pause of collaborative time would have meant cuts in planned per-pupil funding increases for children in poverty and who are learning English — which gave lawmakers heartburn.

The House of Delegates and Senate took different approaches to scaling back the governor’s proposals, but they settled their differences on Monday.

They agreed to pause the policy requirement for more teacher collaboration time for three years, but kept the funding intact for next year. That will give “peace of mind” to superintendents and school boards that are hashing out their budgets for the next school year right now, said Del. Ben Barnes, chair of the House Appropriations Committee.

Lawmakers also kept funding for community schools steady, with some added flexibility for school districts. And where Moore had cut funding for a mental health program for students, lawmakers put in $70 million in funding for the next school year and $100 million for the year after that.

The revised plan made it through both chambers on largely party-line votes with little discussion and several hours to spare.

Paul Lemle, a Howard County social studies teacher and president of the state teachers’ union, said in a statement that educators appreciated the “dramatic progress restoring the vast majority of the proposed cuts to our schools.”

Addressing energy needs

Lawmakers put the finishing touches on a package of bills aiming to address energy and electricity issues, including concerns that Maryland is not producing enough electricity to meet an expected rise in demand.

They passed sweeping policies aimed at attracting new power sources to the state, everything from solar farms to nuclear reactors to climate-warming natural gas plants. And they tightened the screws on a pair of utility industry policies criticized for driving up natural gas bills in recent years — a step ratepayer advocates hailed Monday as a “massive victory” that could save households hundreds of millions of dollars.

Utility customers also will see a modicum of relief under the legislation in the form of two rounds of rebates this summer and winter, averaging about $40 each.

Difficult budget decisions reached

Lawmakers gave their final stamp of approval on a budget plan that raises more than $1.6 billion in taxes and fees while slashing about $2 billion to close the largest budget gap since the Great Recession.

The wealthiest Marylanders will pay more taxes on their income and capital gains, while those who itemize deductions on their tax returns will be limited if they make more than $200,000. There’s a new $5 fee on tire sales and a new 3% tax on data and information technology services — though your cellphone plan is safe from that tax.

Taxes on cannabis, sports gambling and car sales are going up, too.

As of now, the state is poised to have about $2.1 billion in the Rainy Day Fund, along with more than $300 million in extra cash in the general fund.

Top lawmakers reached their final deal on the budget plan late on Friday.

When Barnes presented the agreement to the full House of Delegates on Monday morning, he said it represents “a budget that protects our shared values and priorities, while putting Maryland on strong footing as we face continued uncertainty from the federal government.”

When the final budget votes were cast, Republican lawmakers — who are in the superminority — made late arguments against the taxes included in the deal. They’d previously unsuccessfully proposed more severe cuts to the budget.

“We could have balanced the budget without raising taxes. We could have done it,” said Del. Jesse Pippy of Frederick County, the House minority whip. “We presented a real solution with real cuts.”

After the House voted, the Senate followed suit in approving the budget bills.

Trump effect

The legislators’ actions this session came against a backdrop of stress and uncertainty, given the unpredictable and intentionally disruptive actions of President Donald Trump in the early weeks of his second term.

The federal government was something of a cloud over Annapolis for the past 90 days, with lawmakers often warning that things could get worse for Maryland — more layoffs of federal workers, more cuts to federal funding.

The governor said he was proud of the budget that he and lawmakers delivered amid the “undeniable” chaos coming from Washington.

“We know that protecting Marylanders and caring for Marylanders and defending Marylanders does not happen over 90 days,” Moore told reporters. “So it’s something that we, this administration, will continue to be diligent on all throughout the year and make sure we are doing everything in our power to make sure that our people are OK.”

Senate President Bill Ferguson and House of Delegates Speaker Adrienne A. Jones established a new committee to keep an eye on federal government actions and propose responses.

“We talked from the beginning of the session that the theme that really resonated the most was fear and uncertainty,” said Ferguson, a Baltimore Democrat. “What’s happened at the federal level has been truly unpredictable at every turn.”

Some lawmakers are preparing for the possibility that they may need to be called back to Annapolis, should actions by the Trump administration or the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress result in less money coming into the state treasury’s coffers. They may need to work with the governor to rework the budget that already took so much of their attention.

“If things keep on at this rate — it seems like every day the administration continues axing Maryland jobs — it just keeps upping the odds that we’ve got to come back,” Moon said.

Baltimore Banner reporter Adam Willis contributed to this report.