For the third straight year, the Maryland General Assembly adjourned on Monday night without balloons or confetti — a nod to the serious nature of lawmakers’ work due to COVID-19 and the restrictions placed on outsiders’ access to the State House complex in Annapolis.
It was a fitting coda to a grueling year that required all the usual hard work but contained none of the joy the carnival-like atmosphere of the 90-day session usually brings.
But even though tensions flared at times throughout the final long day of session, policymakers emerged largely upbeat about their accomplishments, which they said addressed the multiple crises confronting the state, from the public health and economic disasters wrought by COVID-19 to longstanding societal inequities that the pandemic has exacerbated.
“It has been a long day but it is the end of what has been an incredibly successful session,” Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) said during a virtual press conference early Tuesday morning.
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