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| A Slots First: House Panel
Approves Plan
By Mike Torralba 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." Copyright © 2005 University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism
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