Md. Speaker Still Says No to Slot Machines, Washington Post , 1-6-04

The Washington Post

Md. Speaker Still Says No to Slot Machines
By Lori Montgomery and Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Staff Writers

Tuesday, January 6, 2004; Page A01

Maryland House Speaker Michael E. Busch yesterday affirmed his opposition to slot machine gambling, called again for higher taxes and said differences between lawmakers and Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. threaten chances for a lasting resolution to the state's chronic budget problems.

With lawmakers set to convene next week in Annapolis, Busch (D-Anne Arundel) said he and the Republican governor are no closer to reaching a consensus about how to close a projected $700 million gap in the state's $22 billion budget than they were last year, when House leaders killed Ehrlich's plan to raise more revenue by legalizing slot machines.

Despite Ehrlich's assertions that he and Busch have made headway in the past nine months, Busch said that he remains opposed to expanded gambling and that he would "probably not" vote to legalize slot machines. Ehrlich, meanwhile, remains steadfastly opposed to Busch's preferred solution, an increase in the state's 5-cent sales tax.

With the governor and the House speaker at deepening odds over new revenue, Busch said the General Assembly is likely to apply only temporary patches to the state's ailing budget structure, leaving unresolved urgent questions about how to pay for improved public schools, new roads and the skyrocketing cost of health care for the poor.

"There's no easy way out of this," Busch said during a luncheon with editors and reporters at The Washington Post. "My belief is we should have addressed most of it last year, got it out of the way and moved on."

Last year, Busch said, Ehrlich was fresh from his election as the state's first Republican governor in more than three decades. Although Ehrlich campaigned against raising sales and income taxes, he could have done so anyway, Busch said. "He could have blamed the Democrats, blamed [former governor Parris N.] Glendening. Say it was worse than it looked, and call on Democrats for help. . . .

"The irony is you've got me out there talking about taxes, giving him some cover," Busch said. "And pretty soon, I'm going to stop talking about it. And if he can balance the budget without taxes, have at it."

Ehrlich has long said the state should cut spending instead of raising taxes. Spokesman Henry Fawell said yesterday that the governor has no intention of breaking that promise to Maryland voters.

"He was elected because people supported change. He is doing precisely what he said he would do when he ran for this office, and people are grateful for it," Fawell said. "Everywhere he goes, the first thing people say to him is thank you for not raising taxes."

Fawell said the governor is optimistic about the coming session and remains hopeful that the General Assembly will legalize slot machines despite Busch's opposition.

Ehrlich said last month that he intends to reintroduce a bill that would legalize more than 11,000 slot machines at four horse-racing tracks to raise an estimated $800 million a year for the state.

Ehrlich's staunchest ally in the quest for expanded gambling, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., said he, too, believes there is reason for hope. "The session will only be unproductive if people make it unproductive," said Miller (D-Calvert). "If people of good will come together and work together, it can be very productive."

Miller declared flatly that "a tax increase is not going to happen" under a Republican governor, and he called on Busch to work with Ehrlich to find a compromise on slot machines, perhaps by introducing his own bill. He also said Busch should recognize the inevitability of using gambling proceeds to fund state services.

"Before we're out of politics, every single state in the union is going to have slot machines. The entire Bible Belt is going to have slot machines, whether you like it or not," Miller said. "Then there's going to be a time when it's saturated and they're out of existence. It's going to happen, just like the sun's going to come up in the morning."

Although a House of Delegates committee has spent the past six months visiting racetracks and holding public hearings on gambling, Busch said the House leadership would not introduce legislation. Nor, he said, is he interested in another debate on the same proposal that died in a House committee last year.

Instead, Busch laid out a very different set of guidelines for legalized gambling yesterday, insisting that the state build slots palaces on its own -- perhaps on state-owned land along interstate highways near the Delaware and West Virginia borders -- before handing over the management to private companies.

Busch said he does not know how much political support exists for his idea and acknowledged that the racing industry would work hard to defeat it.

"Once you do that, the racetrack owners are going to have apoplexy," he said. "But if you look at money from slots as [the public's] money, why would you give it to those guys to rebuild racetracks? They're not building it with their own money. They're building it with slots money. That's money that could go to the schools. It could go to health care or a ton of other things."

Busch also offered the outlines of his legislative agenda, which he said would include a proposal to tax certain land transfers and dedicate the proceeds to county governments for the construction of public schools. Busch said he is also working on a proposal to raise taxes on Maryland corporations by closing what he called loopholes in the state's tax code. He said he would use the extra cash to fund higher education, which has been the target of deep cuts since Ehrlich took office last year.