Welcome to the Annapolis Report: A Review of the 2009 Legislative Session. We hope you will find the following report to be useful and informative, and that it will help you gain a better understanding of what transpired during Maryland's 2009 legislative session.

The session began on January 14 and ended on April 13. During those 90 days, more than 2,600 bills were introduced, and more than 700 bills were passed by the General Assembly. The sheer volume of information combined with the complexity of many bills presents a formidable obstacle to interested citizens. Most Marylanders have neither time nor resources to examine all of the issues dealt with during the legislative session. Newspapers, television reporting, and talk radio all do their part to close this knowledge gap, but these media often focus only on the most popular issues of the day. This report aims to further reduce the knowledge gap by examining many of this year's important legislative issues in closer detail than is possible with other media.

The Annapolis Report differs from similar projects because we have chosen to assess the legislative session as a whole. Rather than single out individual legislators and praise or condemn them based on a small number of votes, we believe that a broader focus on the actions of the General Assembly will prove more helpful in informing Maryland's citizens. However, the report also includes direct links to roll call votes when applicable, so that interested readers can easily determine how their elected representatives voted on specific bills.

This report divides the selected bills into several subjects: budgetary matters, taxes, health, education, regulation, and ethics and transparency. Several bills that are not easily categorized but are nevertheless important are also included. The report card includes a grade for each subject, as well as an overall grade. The bulk of the report, however, consists of a concise analysis of each selected bill. We have striven to make these analyses incisive yet fair, and we hope they will prove useful to interested citizens.

Welcome to the Annapolis Report: A Review of the 2009 Legislative Session. We hope you will find the following report to be useful and informative, and that it will help you gain a better understanding of what transpired during Maryland's 2009 legislative session.

The session began on January 14 and ended on April 13. During those 90 days, more than 2,600 bills were introduced, and more than 700 bills were passed by the General Assembly. The sheer volume of information combined with the complexity of many bills presents a formidable obstacle to interested citizens. Most Marylanders have neither time nor resources to examine all of the issues dealt with during the legislative session. Newspapers, television reporting, and talk radio all do their part to close this knowledge gap, but these media often focus only on the most popular issues of the day. This report aims to further reduce the knowledge gap by examining many of this year's important legislative issues in closer detail than is possible with other media.