Children's welfare advocates accused Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. yesterday of going back on a campaign promise to fully fund a new education-aid formula even if the General Assembly refuses to approve his plan for slot machines at Maryland racetracks.
The advocates made their complaints as Maryland's college presidents convened to urge state lawmakers not to reduce higher education funding further, but they stopped short of directly endorsing slots as an alternative.
Meanwhile, an increasingly impatient legislature waited for details of the governor's revised slots legislation, which is apparently undergoing a wholesale revision.
An Ehrlich spokesman said new numbers on how slots proceeds would be divided among education, local government and horse racing interests could be available as soon as today.
Even with the plan being rewritten, the slots fight has turned into a bare-knuckled brawl over Maryland's most important spending priorities.
This week, the governor has been telling legislators that if his slots plan doesn't pass, the state won't have enough money to implement the recommendations of the Thornton Commission, which were adopted by the General Assembly last year to create school funding equity between rich and poor jurisdictions.
Children's advocates say Ehrlich appeared before them as a candidate in September in Columbia and was asked specifically whether he would fund the Thornton formula with or without the passage of slots legislation.
Four people who were at the event said yesterday that Ehrlich unequivocally said that funding of Thornton would not be contingent on the passage of a slots bill.
Henry Fawell, a spokesman for Ehrlich, agreed that the candidate made such a promise. He said Ehrlich's goal is to fund Thornton, but that without slots "it might not be the Thornton we know today."
Fawell said the governor's promise not to raise taxes takes precedence over his vow to fund Thornton regardless of the outcome on slots.
Fawell said that if the Assembly does not approve slots, it will have to make "Draconian cuts" to the budget that will have a severe impact on vulnerable populations. "That is clearly not a preference to the governor," he said.
Children's advocates said Ehrlich's use of Thornton as a hammer over the legislature violates the promise he made at the Maryland Children's Action Network Convention on Sept. 12.
