Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley squarely placed the blame on Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. for the political gridlock that resulted in the state legislature passing its “doomsday” budget, rather than compromising on a plan to raise new revenues.
O’Malley said Miller, a Democrat, held the revenues plan hostage in the interest of legislation that would expand gambling in Maryland by adding a sixth casino site in Prince George’s County and adding table games to all existing slots casinos.
“Seemingly the Senate was not capable of passing the compromise and consensus budget without also passing gambling,” O’Malley, a Democrat, said on WTOP radio.
O’Malley also blamed Miller for “crowding out” debate on the governor’s proposals to raise the gas tax.
“At the president’s prerogative [discussion on gambling measures] crowded out any more substantive discussions on what to do about transportation [revenues],” O’Malley said.
The General Assembly must reconvene to deal with what the legislature failed to pass, he said.
“We need to get back together to figure out how to make this right,” O’Malley said. “We need to make better choices than the ones that were left when the clock struck midnight and the legislature turned into a pumpkin.”
When asked explicitly whether he would call a special session, O’Malley demurred, saying he would wait to see if there is a “clear consensus to do what many of us thought we had agreed to do.”
A special session would be a “simple process,” O’Malley explained. If everyone is willing to “put our egos aside,” he said, “we could come back for five minutes or come back in this afternoon.
