For a few hours, things were looking brighter for the three commercial bingo parlors in Anne Arundel County.

On the floor of the House of Delegates, a proposed ban on video bingo machines - including the legal ones at Bingo World in Brooklyn Park, Wayson's Bingo in Lothian, and Delta Daily Double Bingo in Laurel - was amended by a 69-67 vote to exempt existing commercial bingo parlors.

The argument for the ban was the machines too closely resemble slot machines and would sap the state revenue expected to be generated if voters approve slots in a November referendum.

But county legislators took up the banner for local bingo operators, who said their industry is heavily regulated and contributes millions to state and local government.

"These businesses will lose half their employment (under the ban)," said Del. Mary Ann Love, D-Glen Burnie. "It is a sad day ... when we say to small businesses, 'We don't care you're doing it right.'"

Out of the 15 members of the Anne Arundel delegation, only House Speaker Michael E. Busch, D-Annapolis, voted against the amendment. Just minutes after the vote, Mr. Busch met in his office with the House majority leader, legislators from the House committee that dealt with the issue and the Democratic whip in charge of rounding up votes.

Speaking to reporters after that meeting, the speaker reiterated his opposition to the machines and said the amendment had been misconstrued as "local courtesy" - the tradition of rubberstamping laws which only affect a local jurisdiction and are supported by the majority of its legislators - when it actually left the door open for counties other than Anne Arundel.

"(Allowing the machines) is an open door to corruption in areas and you are right back to where you were in the 1960s," he said. "I think the amendment was misrepresented. It represented all the bingo halls, it didn't just represent Anne Arundel County."

Ultimately - more than six hours later - the amendment and other attempts to exempt Anne Arundel were killed, the bill passed without an exemption, and the three bingo halls will now have to eliminate their machines by July 1, 2009.

Energy

The House and Senate had some other heavy lifting yesterday, especially with the settlement with Constellation Energy, the parent company of BGE, still hanging in the balance.

In order to end dueling lawsuits, a proposal put forth by Gov. Martin O'Malley will give each BGE ratepayer a $170 rebate and also forgive $1.5 billion worth of decommissioning costs. In return, the state will drop all investigations into the 1999 deregulation agreement that led to skyrocketing utility bills.

The agreement had been thrown into flux after an amendment from Sen. Jim Rosapepe, D-College Park, and Sen. E.J. Pipkin, R-Elkton, would have required any new power plants to come under state regulation again.

In the end, however, legislative leaders were able to put the settlement through in its original fashion.

Mr. Rosapepe said he changed his mind after being assured the state could still move forward with reregulating electricity.

"We have the opportunity today to put money back in the pockets of the ratepayers, and tomorrow the fight to end deregulation continues, because nothing in this legislation will stop it," he said.

Marathon, sprint

The session got off to a slow start this year, as many legislators were still reeling from last fall's roller-coaster special session. Despite attempts from Mr. O'Malley to move beyond financial issues and head into public safety and other priorities, the state's fiscal situation stayed dominant.

It was largely quiet on the social issues front, with one of the most virulent debates set on a now-passed bill requiring minors to get parental consent before tanning.

As predicted, initiatives to create and ban gay marriage failed and the death penalty will remain on the books for another year.

Speed cameras failed, but Mr. O'Malley's proposal to expand collections for the state DNA database raised the ire of the Legislative Black Caucus and was passed in a much more limited form. DNA samples will now be collected from people arrested for violent crimes and burglary, but the law will sunset in five years.

The public safety front did have a success in the creation of the "Capital City Safe Streets" program, a $550,000 collaboration of state, federal and local governments to combat crime in Annapolis.

In addition, Department of General Services police will expand its jurisdiction 1,000 feet from each of its 20 buildings and five parking lots in the city. According to the DGS proposal, the agency's coverage area would balloon to large swaths of downtown, including the Clay Street and Bloomsbury Square areas.

But the larger conversations of the General Assembly were taken over by a sinking economy, which spurred hundreds of millions of dollars in spending cuts.

The most sweeping decision of the legislature was to repeal the derided "tech tax," a 6 percent levy on computer services that would have gone into effect on July 1.

After high-pitched public outcry, the General Assembly replaced it with a higher income tax on people who make more than $1 million a year in gross income, cuts in transportation, and cuts to be determined by Mr. O'Malley.

Local money

Locally, few issues were mired in controversy outside of the efforts to save the video bingo machines.

County Executive John R. Leopold's agenda was praised by Anne Arundel Democrats and Republicans alike as being "modest." Although there was some heartburn over lifting the caps on fees for wells and food licensing, legislators came around to Mr. Leopold's argument that the cost of doing business wasn't being covered.

The county estimates it is losing more than $500,000 with the well and food-licensing caps, and will now be able to get that money back. The Maryland Department of the Environment also will be required to pay the county back for about $100,000 of environmental testing it did during the fly-ash contamination of Gambrills wells.

Mr. Leopold said it was a "decidedly successful" legislative session for the county. He praised the Base Realignment and Closure legislation passed by the General Assembly as a good way for the county to negotiate payments from developers for infrastructure and to finish the Odenton Town Center project.

Overall, Mr. Busch said, the General Assembly has many accomplishment to be proud of from the fall's special session and this year's regular session: an in-state tuition freeze for the third year in a row; a new formula to give more education money to the jurisdictions where it costs the most; an expansion of health insurance to 100,000 more people; and $350 million more for transportation.

In addition, he said, the legislature did not raise the gas tax or pass on burdens to state employees or local governments.

Other politicians weren't so sure.

Del. Nic Kipke, R-Pasadena, headed out the chamber worried that many of the state's policies, such as energy and health care, will simply drive up the cost of living for residents.

"I'd like to be an optimist," he said, "but I just don't feel we are going in the right direction."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.