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By Dan Genz
Capital News Service
Wednesday, April 2, 2003

ANNAPOLIS - A House panel dumped Gov. Robert Ehrlich's slot machine plan with a 16-5 vote Wednesday, but the issue is far from dead for the year.

With eight television cameras recording the moment, the House Ways and Means Committee clobbered Ehrlich's top legislative priority to legalize 11,500 slot machines at four race tracks.

But slots proponents refused to say die, offering other avenues to keep the machines alive.

They can slip the governor's bill into another piece of slots legislation and bring it back to the committee, or use the slots plan authored by Appropriations Committee Chairman Howard P. Rawlings, D-Baltimore, instead of Ehrlich's.

"We will continue working on the bill on a daily basis," said Clarence Davis, D-Baltimore, chairman of the subcommittee that reviews such issues.

Slots resuscitation plans in the House would likely require House Speaker Michael Busch's acquiescence, and the price for the Anne Arundel Democrat's approval would be a tax increase that Ehrlich has promised to veto.

After Delegate Justin Ross, D-Prince George's, said Tuesday it would take pulling a rabbit out of a hat to keep slots from death, another committee member continued the metaphor Wednesday to say political maneuvering, not magic, could keep the machines alive.

"We're cutting the legs off the rabbit. Then we will sew them back on later," said pro-slots Delegate James E. Rzepkowski, R-Anne Arundel.

They'll have time to stitch it together, said Ehrlich spokeswoman Shareese DeLeaver.

"The House's actions have the making of a long summer in Annapolis. The governor would use the big V (veto)" to keep the lawmakers working overtime past Monday's scheduled adjournment, she said.

But Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert, the General Assembly's leading slots backer, said, "If there is any hope, it's flickering."

"The only resurrection we'll be celebrating this month is Easter," said StopSlotsMaryland lobbyist Minor Carter, who said he predicted slots would fail from the beginning.

That's a shame, said former governor and current Comptroller William Donald Schaefer, "If they don't get the slot machines, you can bet poor people are going to be hit hard."

Budget Secretary James C. "Chip" DiPaula Jr. said he felt "somber" Wednesday, because the House thwarted the administration's effort to craft workable legislation, causing his department to cut $700 million in education, aid to local governments and public safety next year.

If slots revenues are out this year, taxes could take their place, said tax subcommittee chairman Michael Gordon, D-Montgomery. That could include the repeal of the 1 percent income tax cut the Legislature enacted in 1997.

With House passing its tax and revenue package by a veto-proof 89 votes, Gordon said, "I don't see why we won't do it again," for the repeal.

But it's unclear how much support there is for his bill. If the House wanted the revenue, DiPaula said, "Why didn't they pass something?"

House Majority Leader Kumar Barve, D-Montgomery, dismissed talk of a last- minute tax hike saying, "The budget is balanced, we can go home." Next year, however, is a fresh deck, Barve said. "Everything - cuts, taxes and gaming - will have to be on the table."

Ehrlich has consistently said he would not support slots next year, and he's promised a veto on sales and income tax increases. Wednesday, DeLeaver modified the slots vow, saying "He will not take the lead again."

If the legislators pass slots on their own, their gamble would be rewarded, she said.

Ehrlich said Tuesday that keeping his promise to avoid sales and income tax hikes is much more important to his administration than passing slots.

"The vote was not about slots," said House Minority Leader Al Redmer, R- Baltimore County, "It was about a big fat juicy tax increase."

House Ways and Means Committee Chairwoman Sheila Hixson has said everything is on the table, and promised her committee will write a slots bill over the summer.

In the meantime, Davis hasn't given up on slots passing this year, "I hate to keep talking about the fat lady, but I don't hear her singing."

Copyright © 2003 University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism