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The Maryland Independent |
by Thomas Dennison
Staff Writer
Dec. 20, 2002
ANNAPOLIS -- The state's massive budget deficit and Gov.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s insistence that legalizing slot machines will solve the problem have given the gambling lobby an early tidal wave of support.
But slots opponents are preparing for a fight. Battle lines are being drawn in the House of Delegates, where incoming Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Dist. 30) of Annapolis and other Democrats are unwilling to hand Ehrlich (R) his signature economic issue on a silver platter.
"I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that slots will pass," said Del. Kumar P. Barve (D-Dist. 17) of Gaithersburg, who will be the House majority leader when the General Assembly convenes in January. "All these people who are going around saying that slots is a done deal are seriously misreading the sentiment in the House of Delegates."
The issue also could set up an intriguing standoff between Busch and Ehrlich.
"I think this will be an early test of leadership for two of Maryland's rising political figures -- Mike Busch for the Democrats and Bob Ehrlich for the Republicans," said Thomas F. Schaller, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. "It will be a test of their ability to count heads, persuade those on the fence and build coalitions."
Still, slots opponents are concerned that the arguments being made by gambling interests are gaining traction in light of the state's fiscal problems and Ehrlich's evident popularity. Ehrlich's chief spokesman, Paul E. Schurick, predicted shortly after the election that slots will move through the legislature "like a hot knife through butter."
"The excessive publicity about the deficit and the dire circumstances of the state has given the pro-slots lobby the ability to silence the opposition," said former St. Mary's County state Sen. J. Frank Raley (D), an authority on slot machines who led the fight to rid the state of them in the 1960s. "I see no organized opposition, and that's very concerning. I can't believe that in Maryland a slot machine bill would breeze through, but that's what it seems to be doing now."
A cycle to abolition
The House is likely to be the proving ground for any slots legislation because it will get the first crack at reworking Ehrlich's fiscal 2004 budget.
Slots opponents say the House is where they will have to make their stand because Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Dist. 27) of Chesapeake Beach supports legalizing slot machines at racetracks.
"The Senate has already rolled over," Barve said.
Miller, however, is not without his conflicts.
He has long backed slot machines because, he argues, Marylanders are spending millions of dollars each year in West Virginia and Delaware, where racetrack slot machines are already in place.
On the other hand, he said, the potential downside to reintroducing slot machines includes gambling, addiction and family problems. The social ills will not be immediate, he said, but he predicted that those problems may lead to the machines being abolished again in 10 years.
That follows what Miller describes as a cyclical pattern of gambling expansion. Today, he said, the cycle is at the "now or never" point for Maryland because all the pieces seem to be in place to approve slots as a way to generate revenue.
"There is a downside to slots, no doubt about it," Miller said. "They may cause social problems, but in light of what's happening all around us, it's imperative that we move ahead before the craze crests and we're on the down slope.
"After a while [gambling] gets saturated, the prohibitionists take hold and it gets outlawed," he said.
But Miller laid down a challenge to "timid" legislators who are simply ruling out slot machines but offering no alternatives to balance the budget other than raising taxes.
"I'm not wedded to slots, but it has become an absolute economic necessity especially because of what's happening on our borders," Miller said. "We need the revenues to balance the budget and provide our children with a good quality education."
Opponents gearing up
Tom Grey, executive director of the Illinois-based National Coalition Against Gambling Expansion, said Ehrlich's election upset has created the perception that slot machine supporters hold a strong hand over opponents in Maryland. But that is typical, he said, and the opposition crowd is not worried.
"I've been a lot of battles that have been 'done deals,'" he told The Gazette. "When someone tells me the train is on the tracks, I don't get weak in the knees and surrender. Those who favor slots are going to have to run over a lot of people if the train truly is on the tracks."
Because Ehrlich, who strongly supported slots throughout the campaign, defeated Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (D), who opposed them, gambling advocates interpret the election as a mandate for slots from the voters.
"I think last month's election proved how Marylanders feel about slots," said Joseph De Francis, owner of Laurel and Pimlico racetracks, two of the four sites where slots would be located under Ehrlich's plan. "There is a mandate."
The Rev. Nancy Jo Kemper, head of the Kentucky Council of Churches, disagreed, saying the anti-gambling coalition has been successful in fighting off slot machines because the thoroughbred industry does not want them. In Kentucky, the center of the horseracing world, the industry employs roughly 70,000 people and slots have always been fought off, she said.
"The argument that slots are needed to save the horseracing industry is just false," Kemper said. "This is about money, plain and simple. The fact is we agree with the horse owners because they know slots will cannibalize everything. People won't be going to the tracks to watch the horses; they'll be going to play the slots."
What's the take?
The estimated $1.8 billion budget deficit further energizes slot machine advocates. Clearly, they argue, choices have to be made, and bringing back slots is preferable to raising taxes.
The threat of tax increases is evidently more of a concern for the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, which caught some opponents off guard when it endorsed the idea of legalizing slot machines and tying the revenue to education.
"The chambers of commerce need to wake up and realize that every dollar that's being spent on slots is another dollar that is not being spent for people to buy their groceries, fix their cars or buy new clothes," Kemper said.
Some lawmakers predict -- and are privately hoping -- that the track owners will want a bigger share of slots revenue, which could switch a few votes in the House and Senate because some may view the bill as a payoff to the owners. The state is expected to demand at least 50 percent of the take with the remainder to be split for infrastructure upgrades at the tracks, for purse enhancements and to pay the owners.
"What I see right now is an industry that is considering [slots] a done deal and their greed is going to begin to show," said incoming Senate Finance Committee Chairman Thomas McLain Middleton (D-Dist. 28) of Waldorf, a leading slot machine opponent. "They recognize that Maryland is in a very vulnerable position right now with the budget, and they are going to go after that for all it's worth.
"I look at the state right now," Middleton said, "as a junkie looking for a fix."