Montgomery Council officials expressed bewilderment yesterday over an initial allocation of school construction funding included in Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposed capital budget for next year: about $20 million.

That was more than any other Maryland jurisdiction received but still a far cry from the $55 million that County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) and Montgomery lawmakers are expecting next year in exchange for some delegation members' support of O'Malley's agenda in November's special session.

Leggett was sure enough of the figure that he alluded to it in his State of the County address last month, saying he anticipated Montgomery receiving "as much as $55 million" in school construction money from Annapolis.

The process for divvying up school construction dollars in Maryland is convoluted and far from done. On Wednesday, O'Malley (D) proposed spending $333 million next year, but he spelled out where only $225 million of that should be spent. The remaining $108 million still needs to be allocated -- a fact O'Malley noted in an interview yesterday.

"We're not done," he said after an event in Baltimore County at which he promoted his $333 million proposal. "We're only midway through the process."

Asked about the $55 million figure cited by Montgomery officials, O'Malley said: "That's their goal, and I'm going to do my best to get to it."

Leggett said yesterday that the initial $20 million included in O'Malley's plan "would not be consistent with what we expect."

"I'll have to talk with the governor to find out what that means," Leggett said. "We made a very strong case for that. He understands that."

Leggett spokesman Patrick Lacefield said the county had expected more than $20 million in the first round in order to meet the $55 million mark by the end of the process.

-- John Wagner and Ann E. Marimow

Every 90-day session of the Maryland General Assembly sees its share of winners and losers. That is certainly true of the recently concluded one, during which Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) arrived in Annapolis, replacing Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R). Here is a look at how some players and issues fared. Add some of your own, if you feel so inclined.

Winners

The O'Malley family: First lady and Baltimore District Court Judge Catherine Curran O'Malley has a longer commute to work -- but much, much bigger digs. The O'Malleys traded their relatively cozy four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath Tudor in northeast Baltimore (they put it on the market last week) for a 54-room Georgian-style mansion in the heart of Annapolis. The family's two teenage girls and two younger boys now have more room to roam, three cooks at their disposal and a big-screen TV on which to play video games. Perhaps the biggest winner of all: Scout, the family's terrier, who has a far bigger yard and unsuspecting tourists to bark at all day.

House Majority Whip Talmadge Branch (D-Baltimore): Granted, it is easier to deliver votes in a mostly Democratic chamber, but the House's new head counter produced bigger numbers than expected on several high-profile bills, including measures to double the tobacco tax, grant in-state tuition to illegal immigrants and require a living wage from state contractors.

Corrections Secretary Gary Maynard: The Iowa import emerged as the real rock star in O'Malley's Cabinet when he carried out a secret plan to export inmates from the House of Correction in Jessup and close the antiquated, 129-year-old maximum security prison.

Dels. Murray D. Levy (D-Charles) and John L. Bohanan Jr. (D-St. Mary's): The dynamic duo from Southern Maryland are now considered go-to guys on the budget. The two appropriators merited a joint profile in the Gazette newspaper and an accompanying front-page photograph that spawned a lively caption contest run out of the speaker's office. Look for their clout to increase further as decisions are made to close a looming $1.5 billion budget gap next year.

Sen. Nancy Jacobs (R-Harford): She demonstrated that having an "R" behind your name doesn't necessarily make you irrelevant in post-Ehrlich Annapolis. Jacobs was a key player on legislation both to impose tougher penalties on sex offenders and to give state's attorneys more tools to prosecute gangs.

Losers

Maryland's uninsured: The largest expansion of subsidized health care in years soared through the House of Delegates before crashing in the Senate, where leaders questioned the wisdom of moving ahead, given the looming budget deficit.

Local school budgets: O'Malley disappointed Washington area lawmakers when he decided not to include funding for the index in next year's budget. The long-promised initiative would reward jurisdictions where the cost of education is more expensive. O'Malley tried to make good by introducing a bill that would require the funding in the future. But that fell victim to budget concerns in the legislature.

Del. Joseph F. Vallario Jr. (D-Prince George's): No stranger to controversies, the House Judiciary Committee chairman fueled one late this session when he referenced a 17th-century English jurist who instructed juries to be suspicious of women's claims of rape. Vallario said he was trying to provide his colleagues with a history lesson, but he outraged women's advocates who found his remarks insensitive.

Smokers: The days of lighting up at Maryland bars are numbered. A statewide ban intended to protect patrons and workers from the dangers of secondhand smoke takes effect in February. The issue had shaped up as the session's cliffhanger, but in the end, the floor votes were not even close.

Thomas L. Bromwell: The former senator from Baltimore County showed that it is not necessary to be in office to bring disrepute to the chamber. Transcripts were released by the FBI of conversations in which Bromwell boasted of Comcast being indebted to him for legislation he pushed. Bromwell is expected to face trial on public corruption charges this year.

-- John Wagner

College students across Maryland can expect to save a few hundred dollars on this fall's tuition bills. By next year, bartenders in all regions of the state should be serving drinks in smoke-free establishments. And many low-wage employees doing contract work for the state should soon see a bump in their paychecks.

In ways big and small, the 90-day session of the General Assembly that drew to a close Monday at midnight will affect the lives of everyday Marylanders.

The session marked the return of one-party rule in Annapolis, as Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, took over the governor's mansion from Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., the state's first Republican governor in a generation, whom he defeated last fall.

O'Malley campaigned on "kitchen-table" issues affecting working-class Marylanders, and much of the agenda he pushed through the heavily Democratic legislature during his first session was intended to benefit them.

That included a freeze next year on in-state tuition at public universities and the nation's first statewide "living wage" law, which will require state contractors to pay their employees significantly better than the minimum wage.

O'Malley also pushed for a record $400 million in school construction funding, a move that could result in fewer students across the state attending classes in what the new governor dubbed "temporary learning shacks" -- a reference to the growing number of trailers popping up on schoolyards in the Washington suburbs and elsewhere in the state.

The biggest disappointments of the session came in the area of health care.

Leaders of the House of Delegates fell short in their drive to double the state's tax on cigarettes to $2 a pack to help fund the state's largest expansion of subsidized health insurance in years.

And on the final night of the session, a deal between state and county officials collapsed to save the financially troubled Prince George's County hospital sysytem, a failure that could result in the relocation of hundreds of patients through the Washington region.

John Wagner

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, whose Irish heritage is a large part of his political persona, is planning a trip to his ancestral homeland shortly after the legislature wraps up its 90-day session next week.

O'Malley (D) has been invited to Dublin by an institute affiliated with Boston College to participate in a conference on the peace and reconciliation process between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

O'Malley is scheduled to give a keynote address April 14 offering an American perspective on the issue, said Thomas E. Hachey, executive director of the Boston College Center for Irish Programs. Other headliners at the two-day event include Thomas Foley, the U.S. ambassador to Ireland.

O'Malley aides said the trip will be the governor's first to Ireland since 2004, when the then-mayor of Baltimore toured with his seven-piece Celtic rock band, O'Malley's March.

O'Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese confirmed the upcoming travel, saying "the governor looks forward to the trip."

Abbruzzese said the trip is being paid for by the Irish Institute, part of Boston College's Center for Irish Programs.

-- John Wagner

Gov. Martin O'Malley is getting solid marks for his early job performance -- particularly from women -- according to a new poll by Gonzales Research & Marketing Strategies.

The poll found that 52 percent of voters approve of the job O'Malley (D) has done since January and that 21 percent disapprove. Another 27 percent said they did not know enough to rate him. The gap widens considerably among women: 59 percent approve, compared to 15 percent who do not.

The poll of 820 regular voters was conducted March 19 through March 22 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

O'Malley also drew praise yesterday from an erstwhile critic, former comptroller, governor and Baltimore Mayor WIlliam Donald Schaefer

As Schaefer received a "First Citizen" award from the state Senate, O'Malley playfully called Schaefer "my mentor and my sometimes tormenter." But he also praised Schaefer for his work to revitalize Baltimore's "glistening" Inner Harbor, now a major tourist attraction, and said he admired Schaefer's "hardworking, can-do grit."

For his part, Schaefer recognized O'Malley as "a nice young governor who I used to fight with all the time." He asked O'Malley's family to stand and directed senators to applaud.

-- John Wagner