By Rebecca Tan, includes “Maryland is ending the fiscal year with a $2.5 billion balance in its state budget, largely attributable to a windfall in tax revenue, state analysts said Thursday. The rosy financial picture, which cuts a steep contrast to the state’s doomsday predictions in the spring of 2020, is a ‘direct reflection’ of the federal government’s stimulus funding, officials said, and suggests that Maryland not only can avert budget cuts but expand investment in critical social services and supports that have buoyed the needy during the pandemic.”