A Slots First: House Panel Approves Plan
By MIKE TORRALBA
Capital News Service
ANNAPOLIS - Slot-machine gambling came closer Wednesday to
becoming a reality in Maryland as the House committee that had
buried previous legislation finally approved it.
The House Ways and Means Committee voted 13-5 with three
abstentions to approve a scaled-back slots bill. In the past two
years, slots bills have died in the committee. Debate by the full
chamber could come today.
The bill would allow a maximum 9,500 slot machines to be issued
through competitive bidding administered by a committee chosen by
the governor, Senate president and House speaker.
Gov. Robert Ehrlich has said slots are needed more than ever to
provide a steady revenue stream to fund public school
construction and save Maryland's horse racing industry.
Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert, has been
Republican Ehrlich's strongest ally in the General Assembly.
House Speaker Michael Busch, D-Anne Arundel, has led opposition
to slots. And though he continues to personally oppose them, he
has in recent weeks acknowledged a floor vote was all but
inevitable.
Neither Ehrlich nor the two top lawmakers could be reached for
comment immediately after the committee approved the bill in a
nighttime voting session.
The House bill would allow slots in four counties: 3,500 in Anne
Arundel, 2,500 in both Harford and Frederick and 1,000 in
Allegany.
The bill requires a minimum 33 percent of slots proceeds to go
to public school construction. That's estimated at about $90
million for schools in fiscal 2008, climbing to at least $326
million two years later, according to the Department of
Legislative Services.
The dollar estimates are likely to be even higher because the
committee bumped up the total number of slot machines from 8,500
in the original bill to 9,500.
The bill also requires 15 percent of proceeds, or at least $14
million in 2008, go to fund a local-development grant. The amount
Maryland's counties receive would be based on per-capita sales of
lottery tickets, meaning Prince George's and Baltimore City would
reap the biggest rewards, even though they wouldn't have any
slots.
Licensees would keep no more than 30 percent of their gross
receipts.
Committee Republicans succeeded in adding a requirement to fund
the Geographic Cost of Education Index, a so-far unfunded plan
for helping school districts with higher operating costs.
The version passed by the Senate on Friday would allow 15,500
video slot machines at seven sites, including four racetracks.
But it does not specify which counties could contain slots.
The four counties in the House bill were chosen because they lie
on major highways leading to Pennsylvania and Delaware, where
slot-machine gambling is legal, lawmakers said. The idea is to
lure gamblers away from those states, which supporters of slots
legislation say siphon needed revenue away from Maryland, they
said.
The House bill initially named Dorchester County as a possible
location for 1,000 slot machines. But the Ways and Means
Committee amended the bill to send those slots to Allegany
County's Rocky Gap Lodge and Golf Resort, a state-owned
enterprise that has fallen on hard times.
Final passage is not assured.
"It's going to be a very long debate," said Delegate Carolyn
J.B. Howard, D-Prince George's. Howard said she abstained because
she holds a leadership position within the committee.
She said the margin of the vote suggests there's significant
support in the House but "it's going to be a tight call."
If approved, the bill would then head to a conference committee
with senators to rework into a final bill to submit to the
governor.
W. Minor Carter, a lobbyist for Stop Slots Maryland, said he did
not think slots will be legalized.
"I think it's going to be very hard reconciling the two bills."