The union representing more than 60,000 state and local employees came out strongly for the constitutional amendment authorizing slot machine gambling on the November ballot, saying jobs and services will have to be cut if the referendum fails.
“We already have a $200 million deficit,” said Patrick Moran, state director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. “Public employees have borne the brunt” of earlier budget cuts. If slots gambling doesn?t pass, “state budget makers will certainly cut services.”
Moran said slots would bring in $700 million to the state, the same number quoted earlier this week by the pro-slots group For Maryland, For Our Future. That is higher than the largest estimates from legislative analysts.
Aaron Meisner, chairman of Stop Slots Maryland, said, “Candidly, they?re making the numbers up. They can be any number that you?d like.” He said the true amount slots would raise might be closer to $400 million ? without factoring in social costs.
Gambling “is a sector of the economy that is just vaporizing before our eyes,” Meisner said, with slots revenues in decline in Atlantic City and Las Vegas, and stock prices of gaming companies taking strong hits.
At a small rally in Baltimore, state and local workers told of shortages of staff and supplies.
“Every day we have mandatory overtime,” said Noel Godfrey, a correctional officer for 17 years at the Patuxent Institution in Jessup. “The budget remains under severe pressure.”
“We need additional money for the school system” in Baltimore, said Glen Middleton, executive director of AFSCME Council 67, whose 20,000 members include 1,300 grounds and maintenance workers for city schools.
“Slots have always been sold as being for the children, but that?s always been a cynical lobbying ploy,” Meisner said.
The slots constitutional amendment would create an Education Trust Fund. But assessing the measure?s impact, legislative analysts said: “In light of the substantial structural deficit currently forecast for fiscal 2009 through 2013, it is assumed that all of the available ETF proceeds are used to support operating programs and therefore offset general fund expenditures” ? in other words, replace money that?s already being spent.
“Annapolis is always spending this money three and four times over,” Meisner said.
