Gov. Martin O'Malley has tied voter approval of legalizing slot machine gambling to funding of his plans for a property tax cut for homeowners, expansion of the Medicaid program for childless adults, and a boost in spending for school construction.
If the General Assembly places a slots referendum on the November ballot next year and voters approve it, the state would get enough revenue to offset a proposed 3-cent property tax cut for homeowners from fiscal year 2010 through 2012 - and also hundreds of millions more for health care and higher education, Joseph C. Bryce, O'Malley's legislative director, told lawmakers yesterday.
But if voters reject the slots constitutional amendment, then the state won't be able to reduce its property tax rate, Bryce said at a joint session of three legislative committees reviewing O'Malley's budget plan.
He also said that Medicaid eligibility for childless adults would not be increased from the current threshold - 40 percent of the federal poverty level - to 116 percent, or about $12,000 a year for an individual, Bryce said.
Defeat of the slots referendum also would prevent the state from pouring an additional $300 million into school construction, Bryce said.
And the state would not be able to use 50 percent of the revenue generated from the proposed increase in the corporate income tax rate for holding down college tuition, completing capital projects at two-year and four-year colleges and funding work force investment, according to the governor's office.
That money would be needed to balance the general fund, Bryce said.
At a news conference outside Government House as joint legislative hearings wrapped up for the day, O'Malley said he linked the slots referendum and the other initiatives because "we have to make sure this all fits together."
"We don't want to fall into the same trap that got us here, which is doing the easy thing of voting for reductions in revenues at the same time you vote for increases in expenses," said O'Malley, who has cited the legislature's decisions to cut taxes and boost spending on K-12 education for the state's shortfall, which he calls a "structural deficit."
Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, a major supporter of legalizing slots, has said the bills that would enact O'Malley's sweeping plan require a "close reading."
