Reviving one of the most hotly debated issues in Annapolis, Gov. Martin O'Malley said yesterday that he will push for legalized slot machine gambling as a way to close Maryland's $1.7 billion budget gap, help the state's struggling horse industry and preserve open space.
The Democratic governor said he has not settled on all the details of his proposal but would use as a model a slots bill that the House of Delegates passed in 2005. That plan called for 9,500 machines at four locations -- one each in Anne Arundel, Harford, Frederick and Allegany counties. That would have allowed for slots at the Laurel Park racetrack but not at Pimlico in Baltimore.
O'Malley has not said where he would put the machines, but he favors state ownership and expects that they would generate about $550 million a year for school construction, education and other needs. About $100 million would go to supplement horse racing and $6 million to help problem gamblers.
The governor made his announcement at Maryland Stallion Station in Glyndon, using the backdrop of one of the state's prominent horse farms to argue that it is time that Maryland dollars stop flowing to Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Delaware, where he says slot machines subsidize horse racing, education and roads and help provide tax relief.
"It's time to put this issue behind us," O'Malley said yesterday. "It is time to find a consensus that allows our racing industry and horse-related agriculture to compete on a level playing field with the states around us, and it's time to stop sending dollars out of the state of Maryland and instead keep them here at home."
Slots will almost certainly be the toughest sell among the dozen measures O'Malley is proposing to eliminate the state's projected $1.7 billion budget shortfall and to add hundreds of millions in new spending for health care, transportation, higher education and the environment.
O'Malley's predecessor, Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., tried and failed four times to bring slots to Maryland, thwarted largely by the Democratic-controlled House of Delegates. Although a fellow Democrat is now governor, House Speaker Michael E. Busch has not budged.
"My position on gambling has not changed -- I am not an advocate for slot machines," the Anne Arundel County Democrat said yesterday in a statement. "I don't think we can expect Marylanders to step up to the plate and pay $2 billion in taxes while unjustly enriching racetrack owners. I'll wait to see the full details of the governor's plan, but we will continue to work toward a comprehensive budget solution."
