Bad news travels fast.

The session hasn’t started, and I attended my first budget briefing today.

No, I haven’t returned to the Appropriations Committee. The projected deficit was the topic at our Democratic Caucus meeting this morning.

“The forecast for 2009 is very bad, and that’s assuming benefits to the economy from the Obama stimulus package,” the General Assembly’s principal fiscal adviser informed us. “Even if we freeze spending, we still have a $1 billion problem.”

That deficit would be even greater if we had not enacted tax increases at the 2007 special session and reduced state spending by $1.75 billion over the last two years.

Better news for two of my bills at meetings this afternoon.

The first would prohibit the State Police from infiltrating undercover agents into groups engaging in lawful First Amendment activity. We had what we hope will be our last meeting to discuss the language in the bill.

The second bill would rename the Maryland Million, the annual day of racing for horses bred in Maryland. To honor the person who thought of this event, it would be called the Jim McKay Maryland Million. I met with the chair of the committee that will hear the bill, and she agreed to co-sponsor it.

From police surveillance to the race track.

To paraphrase what Jim McKay said in the opening sequence of Wide World of Sports: “Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of the sport of legislation.”