In the final hours of the Maryland General Assembly’s annual 90-day session, lawmakers gave final approval to the state budget, including more than $1.6 billion in new taxes. They also finalized major legislation related to energy policy, education and immigration enforcement.

When lawmakers arrived in Annapolis in January, finding a way to close the budget’s roughly $3 billion structural deficit was their biggest challenge. And it wasn’t until the session’s final day that they passed the $67 billion budget.

The spending plan was a major source of controversy, especially the new taxes. Several Republicans on Monday who made a final stand against the budget agreement Democrats negotiated.

“We are raising the taxes and fees on every single person and every single business that you know, from the poor to the middle class to the upper-middle class to the small businesses to the McCormicks to the Northrop Grummans to the richest guys in the state,” said House Minority Leader Jason Buckel. “This will be the worst vote that almost any of you will ever have taken.”

One of the most controversial new taxes is a 3% charge on certain data and technology services. Lawmakers also created new tax brackets for income between $500,000 and $1 million, and income over $1 million. Other tax and fee increases will affect sports betting, cannabis, vending machine purchases, and new car and tire purchases.

Those increases were necessary to protect things like education programs and services for people with developmental disabilities, House Appropriations Committee Chair Ben Barnes said Friday after lawmakers reached an agreement on the budget.

“We know we have to take cuts, and we took about $2 billion in cuts, but we also raised the revenue to make sure that our core values are protected and funded,” he said.

To cut costs in future years, Gov. Wes Moore pushed a bill delaying a plan to give public school teachers more planning time, known as “collaborative time.” The final version approved Monday pauses that plan for two years starting in July 2026.

Another issue hanging over lawmakers since the start of the session was rising electric bills. Lawmakers voted Monday to pass a package aimed at lowering those costs.

“What we know is that the bills are too high, right? Full stop,” said Senate President Bill Ferguson, who championed the effort. “We knew coming into session, we had to have a clear response about what we were going to do, and what we came back with was a short-term, a mid-term and a long-term plan to really lower energy prices and make sure that the energy is cleaner in the long run.”

The bills are intended to encourage new energy to come online, especially nuclear and other renewable sources. They also eliminate subsidies for trash incineration and give electric ratepayers two small rebates on their bills in the next year – one in the summer when air conditioning causes bills to rise, and one in the winter.

Though many major issues were settled with a few hours to spare, several immigration bills hung in the balance as midnight approached.

The most controversial of these “said every county, including those counties that currently deem themselves sanctuary counties, would have to start calling in ICE for people convicted of crimes of violence, felonies, DUIs, sex offenders and the like,” explained House Majority Leader David Moon.

In exchange, local jurisdictions would not be allowed to have 287(g) agreements, through which local police assist with federal immigration enforcement.

“The reason for that is you have people who are victims of domestic violence, who are scared to call their own police for help from violent criminals because their police have decided to become federal deportation agents with no restrictions as to the type of crime,” Moon said.

However, Senate President Bill Ferguson raised concerns last week that passing the measure would lead to retaliation from the Trump Administration.

Those provisions did not pass.

On the other hand, lawmakers did pass protections for Marylanders’ personal data from being used for immigration enforcement and a measure to prevent immigration agents from entering certain “sensitive locations” without a warrant.

The bill passed just a few minutes before lawmakers’ midnight deadline.