Graduate teaching assistants and adjunct professors at Maryland’s public universities will have to try again next year to get state lawmakers to back collective-bargaining rights for them.

Legislation that would have allowed the TA’s and adjuncts to negotiate their pay, benefits, and teaching workloads has failed in the Maryland General Assembly, The Washington Post reported today.

The legislation, introduced in the House of Delegates by Del. Barbara A. Frush, a Democrat, never made it out of the Appropriations Committee. And Sen. Jamin B. Raskin, a Democrat who sponsored the bill in the Senate, said he planned to withdraw it, the newspaper said.

According to the Post, legislative analysts said the University System of Maryland estimated the costs related to union negotiations with the graduate students at $1.3-million. “We’re in tough times economically, so any bill with a hefty fiscal note is dead on arrival,” Mr. Raskin told the Post. He said he hoped to reintroduce the legislation next year. —Audrey Williams June