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Md. legislative session enters home stretch

WASHINGTON — It’s a race for time in the Maryland State House.

“Any bill that does not pass by midnight April 7 is going to be dead for the year,” says Del. Sam Arora, D-Montgomery.

One of the big questions remaining, Arora says, involves the right to a lawyer.

If you’re ever busted, you have a right to an attorney, but will the attorney be there when you want to make bail? Maryland’s under a court order to make sure that happens, and coming up with legislation to do it remains one of the big issues in Annapolis.

“There’s a price tag of anywhere from $30 to $100 million associated with not fixing it,” Arora says.

He adds that other unfinished business includes the state budget, the minimum wage and whether the Netflix series “House of Cards,” which films in Maryland, will successfully squeeze the state for a bigger tax credit.

Arora says he’s getting asked if the state will hold out?

“To quote Frank Underwood, you might think that, but I couldn’t possibly comment.”

WTOP’s Kate Ryan contributed to this report.

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