Maryland lawmakers Friday questioned Gov. Martin O’Malley’s justification for pushing narrowly tailored criteria for the location of five slot-machines venues across the state.
O’Malley’s proposed $700 million slots legislation, which could be sent to a public vote next year, calls for five licensees to operate 15,000 machines. The bill, which mandates the locations in some cases to a one-mile radius of a specific intersection, would require an amendment to the state constitution.
“It’s a very gray, significant document,” Sen. Lowell Stoltzfus, an Eastern Shore Republican, said during a hearing on the proposal. “It doesn’t go into detail like this anywhere else.”
O’Malley’s bill calls for a venue within two miles of Interstate 95 in Cecil County, one on state property associated with Rocky Gap Lodge in Allegany County, and one in a nonresidential area within one-half mile of Interstate 95 and Route 295 in Baltimore City.
The proposal also qualifies locations within two miles of Route 295 in Anne Arundel County — which many lawmakers presume to be Laurel Park racetrack — and within one mile of the intersection of Routes 50 and Route 589, which includes the Ocean Downs racetrack.
Stoltzfus asked Ocean Downs owner William Rickman Jr. if his campaign contributions to O’Malley helped qualify his property for a slots location. Rickman denied Ocean Downs was pre-selected, and said the bill, which directs $400 million of slots revenue to operators, will limit a licensee’s profits.
“If ever there was a bill that works strictly for the state, this is it,” Rickman said.
O’Malley’s administration says the venue locations are specific to gain voters’ confidence. Joseph Bryce, O’Malley’s chief legislative officer, said the Worcester County intersection was chosen to emphasize that slots will stay clear of Ocean City town limits, and that many locations other than Laurel Park qualify for the Anne Arundel County location.
Bryce said the administration would not support the bill without the locations narrowly defined.
“The governor was conscious of not locating too many facilities in the state,” he said. “Once you decide not to go very aggressive on the number of locations, and once you decide to go in the vicinity of Laurel Park and decide to go with a location in Baltimore City, there’s not that many licenses left to go around.”
Witnesses from both sides of the debate testified for hours in Thursday’s hearing. Baltimore City Mayor Sheila Dixon said a slots venue would help the city lower property tax rates.
“There is simply nowhere else to go for revenue,” Dixon said.
