I remember reading back in pre-Internet times that Charles Peters, the West Virginia legislator who went on to found the Washington Monthly, used to say that state legislatures are just committees for dividing up the loot, though I can’t find it online. The Maryland legislature, which convenes today, has a veritable Scrooge McDuck pile of loot to divvy up—and every interest group in the state knows it.

Maryland is currently blessed with an unprecedented $4.6 billion state surplus, and it expects a $1.9 billion surplus every year for the next five years. Legislators are ready to spend, the Washington Post reports:

Lawmakers expect prolonged debate over how to best use an enormous pool of cash at policymakers’ disposal. The sum is so large it could accommodate massive infrastructure spending, some targeted tax relief and still pad the state’s savings account for years to come, lawmakers said. In addition, analysts expect Maryland to bank a roughly $1.9 billion surplus every year for the next five years, a stream that could finance ongoing programs or some tax cuts.

“It’s hard to understate the enormity of this,” House Majority Leader Eric G. Luedtke (D‑Montgomery) said. “Every interest group, every trade group, every constituent group has an idea for what to do with that money. It probably adds up to roughly $30 billion.”

Of course, there’s one interest group that isn’t much represented in the state capitol: the taxpayers who paid the unprecedented amount of taxes. Public choice theory tells us that taxpayers are too large and diffuse a group to be an organized interest group. It’s the organized groups, with lobbyists and “astroturf” campaigns, that carry weight in state and national capitals. And they all want a piece of the pie.