The Maryland House of Delegates passed Gov. Martin O'Malley's nearly $37 billion budget on Friday, sending it over to the Senate with three weeks left in the 2013 legislative session.

The budget increases overall spending by 5 percent, increases money for local law enforcement, gives state workers their first raise in three years and increases Maryland's cash reserves to more than $1 billion to help deal with federal spending cuts coming as part of the sequester.

The House -- which approved the measure 101-36, with only three Republicans voting for it -- left O'Malley's budget virtually unchanged, cutting $420 million and adding protections to the fund used for transportation projects. The Transportation Trust Fund has no money for new projects -- such as the Purple and Red light rail lines and the Corridor Cities Transitway rapid bus system along Interstate 270 -- and is slated to go bankrupt in 2018.

Sign Up for the Politics Today newsletter!

Please enter your email address below to begin receiving the Politics Today newsletter.

You must enter a valid email address in the field above!

Thank you for signing up for the Politics Today newsletter! You should receive your first newsletter very soon.

We're sorry, there was an error processing your newsletter signup. Please click here to visit our Newsletter Signup Center to register for this newsletter.

Legislatures over the years have used transportation funds for other purposes, raising calls for a "lockbox" on the fund, which would prevent it from being used for anything other than transportation. The budget bill would do that, but the protection can be overriden by a committee vote.

O'Malley's separate bill to raise the wholesale tax on gasoline to raise transportation money provides a slightly stronger protection, requiring a three-fifths supermajority vote in committee to use transportation funds for other purposes.

abrownfield@washingtonexaminer.com