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Washington Post
Miller Vows
To Block Md. Budget Over Slots By Lori Montgomery
and Craig Whitlock The president of the Maryland Senate threatened yesterday to keep lawmakers in Annapolis as long as it takes to pass a plan to legalize slot machine gambling, saying slots proceeds are critical to resolving the state's long-term budget problems. With one week left until the General Assembly is scheduled to adjourn, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) said he would not resume work on the state budget until House leaders stopped blocking the slots bill, which could raise as much as $800 million a year for the state. The slots bill has passed the Senate and is languishing in a House committee for a second straight year. Asked how long he would wait, Miller smiled. "For $800 million, I'm willing to stick around for a long time," he said. Miller's warning raises the stakes in an already tense dispute over whether to legalize gambling or raise taxes to pay for an ambitious program to improve public schools. Miller and Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) are pushing a plan to place 15,500 slot machines at six locations statewide. But House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) opposes expanded gambling, and he has won House approval for a tax package that would raise $1 billion in new sales and income taxes while lowering the state property tax rate. Amid the impasse, the General Assembly missed its statutory deadline yesterday for approving an annual spending plan. If the budget does not receive final approval by the end of the session Monday, the state constitution requires the legislature to keep going until a balanced budget is passed. During an extended session, the slots bill and the tax bill would die, along with more than $400 million in fund transfers and fees needed to balance next year's budget. That could leave lawmakers with no choice but to cut $400 million in state spending to balance the books. "I think the Senate's in a good bargaining position," said Del. Van T. Mitchell (D-Charles), a member of the House budget committee. State leaders met through the weekend to try to work out a compromise. On Saturday, Busch met with Ehrlich's budget secretary, Chip DiPaula Jr. And Sunday, Ehrlich invited Busch and Miller to join him for a two-hour discussion at the governor's mansion. Yesterday, Ehrlich said "progress was made" at that meeting. But the governor, who campaigned on a promise not to raise sales or income taxes, said he gave no ground on Busch's demand that any deal on slots include a significant tax increase. Ehrlich said he is open to a variety of much smaller revenue measures, including a plan to deny SUV owners the same tax breaks on their state returns as they would get under a new federal law. He also mentioned diverting an existing tax on property sales into the state's primary operating fund, instead of dedicating it to the preservation of open space. But Ehrlich said he would not consider allowing even a temporary increase in the sales tax. "If the conversation makes a left turn -- and I do mean a left turn -- into a major tax increase, the conversation needs to cease," he said. Miller said Sunday's meeting was "very positive" and he predicted that Busch would allow the House to vote on slots this week. Busch declined to say how the House will resolve the slots debate, saying only that "everybody is listening intently to the other's proposals. . . . Hopefully, we can get to some kind of resolution by the end of the week." Yesterday, there were few signs to indicate what that resolution might be. House deliberations over slots have stalled. Del. Clarence Davis (D-Baltimore), chairman of the subcommittee that oversees gambling issues, postponed a work session, saying there was no point in meeting until legislative leaders conclude their negotiations with Ehrlich. "There's nothing to work on," Davis said. "The sides are too far apart." Meanwhile, House budget leaders prepared to receive a briefing today from DiPaula, who is arguing that the state doesn't need new taxes to wipe out a shortfall expected to approach $1 billion by summer 2005. Even if a slots bill passed, the measure would raise little cash until 2006, according to legislative fiscal analysts. DiPaula has said the state can take various steps short of raising taxes to wipe out next year's shortfall. A document prepared yesterday for House leaders indicates that those steps are likely to include massive cuts in aid to local government, community colleges, health care for the poor and public education. "There's lots of things you can do that aren't raising taxes. But they show up as budget cuts to somebody else," said the legislature's chief budget analyst, Warren Deschenaux. Miller said he pressed Ehrlich on Sunday to "give consideration to the House position" on taxes. But he said Ehrlich won't cut a deal until Busch moves the slots bill. Last year, Miller said, Ehrlich agreed to raise property taxes in exchange for House passage of slots, "and he got nothing in return." © 2004 The Washington Post Company |
