Busy Last Day for Maryland Legislators

It's the last day in the Maryland General Assembly's 2009 legislative session. Time to drink! Well, not really, or at least for a few hours, after they take care of such small things as immigration reform, seizure of horse racing stadiums and an annual budget.

But hey, would you look at that: two out of these three things are now history!

Earlier today, the Senate approved contentious last-minute legislation granting the state eminent domain authority to keep the Preakness Stakes horse race in Maryland, and now it appears that the House of Delegates has also approved the measure, 94-43. It's a historic bill, involving the seizure of "intellectual property," which in this case describes a race between animals.

Lawmakers also put the finishing touches on its excruciating $14 billion budget, which relies heavily on $1.5 billion in Obama Stimulus money. It also transfers certain important spending decisions to the next fiscal year, and policy analysts are expecting the next legislative budget battle to be even worse. They're projecting a budget gap of over $1 billion already. Have fun with that in an election year, everyone!

As for tonight's entertainment, lawmakers will try to finally reach a compromise on whether to let illegal immigrants with Maryland licenses renew them, which they must solve. Because in October federal law will change under the Real ID act, and if Maryland state law remains the same -- that no document of lawful present is necessary to get a Maryland driver's license -- then no one from Maryland will be allowed in airports. Literally.

There's an old state legislative trick where, as midnight looms on the last day of session, and there's still much work to be done, lawmakers will manually move back the hands on the clock. Might need to do that this year.

Jim Newell writes for Wonkette and IvyGate.