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The last day of the 2018 Maryland General Assembly has arrived, and lawmakers are scurrying to get still-pending legislation approved by the midnight deadline.
More than 3,100 measures were introduced this year; only 652 of them have passed in both the state Senate and the House of Delegates thus far.
Although the bills are dead, Del. Neil C. Parrott, R-Washington, said Friday that two of his proposals might become reality without legislation.
The House Environment and Transportation Committee voted to recommend in a letter to the Motor Vehicle Administration his suggestion that parallel parking return as a requirement for driver's licenses in Maryland.
And the State Highway Administration plans to include his recommendation for pedestrian hybrid beacons —special traffic lights for pedestrian crossings in areas where there are no full traffic signals — as it updates its traffic-control devices manual, he said.
On Thursday morning, Gov. Larry Hogan, House Speaker Michael E. Busch and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. were celebrating bipartisanship and cooperation as they gathered to sign several bills already approved by the legislature.
The teamwork on the measures represented "everything that government should be," Busch said.
But within hours, the House and Senate voted largely along party lines to override Hogan's veto of a school-construction bill that became controversial after House leaders tacked on an amendment taking the state Board of Public Works out of the mix.
The board, which includes Hogan, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Treasurer Nancy Kopp, no longer will authorize school-construction funds as a result.
The J.B. Jennings loo?
As proceedings drew to a close in the Senate on Thursday, Miller talked about naming the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee's conference room for outgoing Chairman Edward Kasemeyer, D-Baltimore/Howard.
That prompted Senate Minority Leader J.B. Jennings, R-Baltimore/Harford, and Minority Whip Stephen Hershey, R-Upper Shore, to quip that the state was running out of venues to name for people and might have to build some more.
Miller grinned at Jennings.
"We're gonna name the bathroom after you," he said.
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