Gov. Martin O?Malley on Wednesday said he will consider letting residents vote on slot machine gambling, calling a statewide referendum on the controversial issue “more palatable” to some lawmakers.
O?Malley, who presented his solution to resolve the state?s $1.7 billion structural deficit Wednesday at Salisbury University, said he is open to “any ideas to help achieve consensus.”
“We would finally let the people decide, in a way, what their representatives have been incapable of deciding for the last four years,” O?Malley said.
A referendum would require a three-fifths majority from both chambers of the General Assembly, and would likely appear on the ballot next fall. Reaction appears mixed: The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Senate President Thomas Mike Miller, who supports slots, called the referendum idea “ludicrous.”
O?Malley said the deficit would only grow if lawmakers delay a decision on slots and resist a special session to consider his sweeping tax proposals ? raising the sales, income, corporate, titling and cigarette taxes.
Wednesday, a jazz band entertained Eastern Shore business leaders and students before the governor presented his PowerPoint sales pitch.
Many reviews were glowing. Wicomico County Executive Richard Pollitt, a Democrat who supports slots, said O?Malley could shift the deficit to local governments, but hasn?t.
“We have our own challenges when it comes to raising revenue to provide the services our residents expect from local government,” Pollitt said.
But David Davenport, a Republican political science student from Berlin, Md., said O?Malley?s proposal would unjustly mean higher income taxes for the state?s wealthiest residents.
“I don?t think it?s right to depend on 3.7 percent of the people to fund 36 percent of the budget,” Davenport said.
Meanwhile, in Annapolis, House Speaker Michael Busch told The Examiner that having a referendum on slots would improve its chances of passing both the House and the Senate. Busch, who does not support slots, noted there is a precedent: The state lottery was passed on a referendum in 1972. Miller had agreed to a slots referendum during discussions of a 2004 plan, the speaker said.
“It?s worth a discussion,” Miller said, butit still would depend on the governor?s details of the proposal.
Examiner staff writer Len Lazarick contributed to this story.
