Sprinkled among the crowds at Saturday?s Preakness will be “a visible presence” of people working to win passage of November?s slots referendum that could partially fund aid to the thoroughbred racing industry, said the head of a pro-slots coalition Wednesday.
Half of the estimated $1.3 billion slots eventually may generate could help fund education, but 7 percent ? about $90 million ? would go to enhance racing purses, which would help maintain the 69,000 thoroughbreds on 20,000 horse farms in Maryland, said Fred Puddester, head of the pro-slots group For Maryland, For Our Future.
He declined to speculate how many slots advocates would be at the state?s equivalent of the Superbowl, whether 30 or 130.
“They?ll be communicating with the public,” Puddester said. “I don?t see them fundraising.”
But Aaron Meisner, chairman of the Stop Slots Maryland organization, scoffed at the idea.
“I?d be surprised to see the pro-slot side there,” Meisner said.
“The pro-side has no grassroots. Who are they going to have? The board of directors of the Chamber of Commerce?”
The state chamber is among the organizations that are officially backing the constitutional amendment that would allow 15,000 slots at five locations, including downtown Baltimore City and near Laurel Park racetrack.
Other groups backing the amendment include the governing boards of the state AFL-CIO, the teachers union and the Maryland Association of Counties.
Puddester trotted out the usual arguments for slot machine gambling, including the estimated $450 million that?s being wagered by Maryland residents in West Virginia, Delaware and now Pennsylvania.
Puddester, a former state budget director and now a finance officer at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore City, called the plan passed by the General Assembly in November, “the most taxpayer friendly proposal in the nation.”
Those holding the licenses to run the slots facilities would get 33 percent of the take ? low compared to other states ? while state and local governments get 55 percent.
When a fiscal commission Puddester headed studied slots proposals five years ago, “he came up with numbers that are sharply lower” for estimated revenue, Meisner said, yet “we?re in a significantly more competitive environment. Why can?t Fred agree with Fred?”
Meisner also predicted the General Assembly would increase the take for licensees if the referendum passes.
