Several senators raised problems they had with Gov. Martin O?Malley?s slot machine proposal during a Budget and Taxation Committee work session Monday. But its chairman, Sen. Ulysses Currie, predicted that once changes are made in the plan, “I think the votes are probably there to pass this.”
After observing much of the work session, Senate President Thomas Mike Miller, the legislature?s most fervent slots advocate, said, “for the most part, the bill is satisfactory,” but he still opposed putting the slots gambling on a referendum for voters next year.
Miller said it would be “the end of the week before we have a final bill,” with spending cuts and proposed tax increases coming to the Senate floor first.
Sen. Lowell Stoltzfus, a Lower Shore Republican who opposed slots even under Gov. Robert Ehrlich, made clear his disdain for the plan to put slot machines at Ocean Downs racetrack near Ocean City. Stoltzfus wanted to know why slots would be placed near the resort, whose merchants don?t want the competition, but not at Rosecroft Raceway in Prince George?s County.
“Geographically, it made sense to have a location on the Eastern Shore,” said Joseph Bryce, O?Malley?s chief legislative officer.
Stoltzfus said the hotels of Ocean City already were full in summer, and he suggested that it was large contributions to O?Malley?s campaign by the owner of Ocean Downs track that influenced the decision.
“Let me take a deep breath,” an irritated Bryce replied. Last year, O?Malley “ran on [having] slots at racetracks” and it was logical for track owners “to support his campaign because it?s an issue he believed in.”
Two Western Maryland Republicans, Sens. George Edwards and Donald Munson, peppered Bryce with questions, but told The Examiner they might be willing to support slots with changes in the bill. Edwards was particularly concerned that a separate facility be built for the slots located at the state-financed Rocky Gap Resort in his district, a money-loosing project. He also wanted his low-income district to get some of the Geographic Cost of Education Aid promised to other counties in the slots bill.
To put the constitutional amendment designating slot sites on the 2008 ballot, 29 senators must vote for the bill, a number difficult to achieve without some Republicans.
