Gov. Martin O?Malley and House Republicans finally found common ground ? slot machines.
Labor Secretary Tom Perez released a report Tuesday that advocated starting a state slots program to keep money from flowing to neighboring states and to bolster the horse racing industry. House GOP members said Wednesday a “limited” slots program was the only way they could support raising revenues.
“By not having slots,” Perez wrote, “Maryland has already left hundreds of millions of dollars in potential general fund revenue on the table,” with West Virginia and Delaware gaining “$150 million in taxes paid by Maryland slot players” ? 10 percent of Maryland?s structural deficit.
Perez had no specific plan for slots, but House Republicans want an auction of six licenses to private entrepreneurs for 15,000 machines. The auction for 20-year licenses would be run by a nationally recognized investment bank, and the auction could generate up to $600 million next year before the sites were actually in operation, and then more than $600 million in annual revenues.
The GOP?s proposal to balance the 2009 budget without tax hikes “was not easy to arrive at,” House Minority Leader Anthony O?Donnell said. “We have a diversity of opinion” about slots and other issues.
Del. Ron George, an Anne Arundel County Republican who does not favor slots , said he served onthe committee which came up with the GOP slots proposal because “we have to prepare our own version of it,” rather than accept a Democratic version.
Comptroller Peter Franchot remained highly critical of Perez?s report, saying it “simply repeated the talking points of the national gambling industry.” The report fails to “look at the negative impacts in terms of crime and violence, drug addiction ? and the impact on small business, neighborhoods and entire communities,” he said.
