ANNAPOLIS - The Maryland Senate unanimously passed a measure Tuesday that would eliminate pork barrel legislation from the capital budget for the next two years.

Sen. Kathy Klausmeier, D-Baltimore County, introduced the measure as an amendment to the capital budget, and it was immediately adopted. The amendment would send state money currently used for "bond bills" -- legislation to provide funding for local projects -- to public schools for fiscal 2011 and 2012.

"These [bond] bills are the closest we can get in Annapolis to printing money," said Sen. Andrew P. Harris, R-Baltimore and Harford counties. "We're in an economic mess. Printing bonds for the purpose of the local legislative process is not what we need to do."

Securing funds for local "pet" projects through bond bills is a long-standing tradition for Maryland lawmakers.

"It's a way of getting votes," said Christopher Summers, president of the Maryland Public Policy Institute. "The state of Maryland is littered with white elephants where politicians think these are great schemes."

Summers' institute documented 50 Maryland lawmakers who in 2008 gave state funds to organizations for which they served as board members or in some other leadership capacity.

This year, Gov. Martin O'Malley set aside $15 million for bond bills -- $7.5 million each for the Senate and House.

In the Senate, Montgomery and Prince George's lawmakers secured the most money by far this year for local projects. Montgomery's senators won $1.3 million for 15 projects, and Prince George's won $1.4 million for 16 projects, according to the Senate's capital budget.

Excluding Baltimore, the rest of the counties averaged $215,000 in pork.

O'Malley spokesman Shaun Adamec said the governor would not object to cutting pork funding for several years if the amendment is included in the final version of the budget.

Whether the amendment sticks is up to the House of Delegates and a conference committee.

Even if the amendment is enacted, however, lawmakers could push pet projects through, as long as budget committees can identify another source of funding -- meaning they would have to cut from elsewhere in the budget.