The House Republican caucus in Annapolis is opposing the slot machine constitutional amendment on the November ballot, preferring its own slots plan that the delegates say will raise more money faster.
They want to use the money raised to repeal all the tax increases passed in last year’s special session, and slow the growth in state spending.
“We are in favor of slots, but we are not in favor of a bad slots plan for Maryland,” said House GOP leader Tony O’Donnell.
As the Republicans were laying out that plan for tax and budget cuts – there were no specifics on the cuts – Gov. Martin O’Malley was announcing that he would be recommending hundreds of millions in cuts in the budget at the Oct. 15 Board of Public Works meeting. O’Malley said he has asked department heads to trim up to 5 percent from their current spending, and would be proposing more reductions in education, public safety and health for next year.
The GOP plans depends on a free-market slots legislation that would raise $850 million from an auction of licenses at six locations to be chosen by the operators – not the five specified locations in the slots amendment.
With that money, the GOP would gradually reduce the sales, income and corporate tax increases from the past year, eliminating $3.8 billion in taxes – $1,750 per household – over the next four years. The Republicans would also take back the sales tax revenues going into the transportation trust fund, reducing funding for roads and mass transit to where it was before the tax increases.
“Maryland has an addiction to increased government growth and increased government spending, and it never stops,” O’Donnell said.
O’Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said the GOP plan “is an unworkable solution that fails to address the downturn in the national economy,” which has caused the coming deficits.
“A proposal like this [on slots] would not make it through the Maryland General Assembly,” Abbruzzese said. The legislature “was deadlocked on this issue and it’s time to move forward and let the people decide.”
A Rasmussen Reports poll of 500 likely Maryland voters published this week showed 54 percent favored the slots referendum, 35 percent were opposed and 11 percent were not sure. It has a margin of error of 4.5 percent.
