The decision Howard County voters face Nov. 4 on whether to allow slot-machine gambling came into stark relief during a Columbia Democratic Club-sponsored discussion between Del. Frank S. Turner and Stop Slots Maryland President Aaron Meisner.
If voters approve the measure, Maryland will get five slots casinos, the locations of which are set in the referendum, including one most likely at Laurel Park racetrack in Anne Arundel County, near the border with Howard.
State officials say the projected $600 million in revenue is badly needed to fill widening holes in Maryland's budget. But Meisner argued to a group of about 50 at Jeffers Hill Community Center on Wednesday night that the machines are designed to prey on the poor and addicted and will lead to more crime, while siphoning money to greedy out-of-state gambling firms that are flooding Maryland with lobbying money.
"It's a regressive, racist tax," he said, noting that most state lottery sales are in heavily African-American jurisdictions such as Baltimore City and Prince George's County.
Audience member Ron Somerville asked why Maryland, one of the wealthiest states in the nation, can't raise enough tax revenue to pay its bills.
"You ducked your responsibility," he said to Turner.
The delegate replied that he is merely one vote in Annapolis.
"I voted for more tax increases than I ever thought I would," Turner said.
But Ethel Hill, who said jokingly that she is "too cheap to gamble," believes others can afford it and enjoy it.
"I have lots of friends who do," she said. "They're retired, they have disposable income and they do travel."
Meisner said the amount of money residents gamble away outside Maryland is negligible.
Turner, who serves on the House Ways and Means Committee and heads a subcommittee on slots, did not defend gambling, but he argued that slots are needed to help supplement Maryland's tax revenue. The slowing economy is predicted to leave a $432 million shortfall in the state budget this fiscal year and a $1 billion shortfall in fiscal 2010, which begins July 1, 2009.
"I've never been a big slots person, but we need another source of revenue," Turner told the group. The sales tax increase has not produced enough money, and legislators will not raid depleted transportation or open-space funds.
