Maryland Republicans Imperil Passage of Slots Plan in Senate
GOP Won't Offer Support for Bill During Special Session

By John Wagner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 4, 2007; A10

Maryland Senate Republicans said yesterday that they would not provide any votes for a bill legalizing slot-machine gambling if Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) calls a special legislative session this fall, a development that threatened to unravel the governor's efforts to win quick action on a plan to address a $1.7 billion budget deficit.

O'Malley is counting on slots proceeds to eventually yield $550 million a year for the state, and it is the one piece of his revenue package that Democratic legislative leaders have said would almost certainly require Republican votes to pass. The last slots bill to pass the 47-member Senate, in 2005, would have fallen seven votes short without GOP support.

Minority Leader David R. Brinkley (R-Frederick) said that some of the chamber's 14 Republicans continue to support slots. But, Brinkley told reporters, Republicans are so disappointed with other aspects of O'Malley's plan that they want a longer debate when lawmakers return for their regular 90-day session in January.

"Senate Republicans are united in withholding their support for any new gaming initiatives during a special session," Brinkley said. "We cannot offer those votes in a special session devoted to an unnecessary massive tax increase on Maryland's citizens that would have long-range, negative repercussions on our economy."

House Republicans have not taken such a hard line on slots, but GOP leaders have also signaled in recent days that their votes should not be taken for granted in the 141-member chamber. The only slots bill to have passed the House in recent years, in 2005, received the bare minimum number of votes needed for passage, with 35 Republicans joining 36 Democrats in favor.

House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel), a slots opponent, said that the recent development reinforced his view that lawmakers should wait until January to weigh in on O'Malley's proposals, which include multiple tax increases.

"I counseled the governor that there's a lot of pitfalls to a special session," Busch said. "Some of that's starting to come to fruition, thankfully before the governor announced it."

In an interview, O'Malley sought to play down the significance of the Senate Republicans' announcement and said he is committed to pressing ahead with plans for a special session by early next month.

"I think it's irresponsible not to try," O'Malley said. "Obstruction is easy. Doing nothing is easy, but it's not responsible."

O'Malley also warned that if a budget package, including slots, is not passed in coming weeks, "we may well default to a really painful scenario of deep cuts to important services."

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert), a major slots proponent, said it might be possible to win Senate passage of a slots bill with only Democratic votes, saying that the magnitude of the budget shortfall presents "a totally different environment" from that of past years.

Other members of his chamber were not convinced that Miller could persuade enough senators to support a slots plan, however.

"He's very talented, but I don't think he's that talented," said Sen. Brian E. Frosh (D-Montgomery), one of a handful of senators jockeying to succeed Miller if he steps down as president when his term expires in 2010.

Frosh, a slots opponent, said if the Republican senators are taken at their word, "there's no point in having a special session. I don't think the governor can get the necessary votes for slots without the Republicans."

Sen. James Brochin (D-Baltimore County), who has supported slots in the past, said, "It's possible, but it makes it very difficult" to pass a slots bill in the Senate without GOP support.

Miller was quick to condemn his Republican colleagues for their stance on O'Malley's tentative slots proposal, which would steer $100 million a year to the horse-racing industry as well as raise money to close the shortfall.

"They're letting the horse industry down," Miller said of the Republicans. "They're letting the rural areas down. They're letting the breeders down."

Miller also suggested that the Republican stance on slots was part of a broader pattern of obstructionism. "There was a time when people were elected to make government work," he said. "Since Newt Gingrich, every time the Republican Party didn't get their way, they want to stop government."

Nine Republicans joined 17 Democrats in voting for the slots bill that passed the Senate in 2005. The 26 votes received were two more than needed for passage.

Busch said that he does not think the 71 votes required to pass the bill in the House can be obtained without Republican support.

Comptroller Peter Franchot (D), a former delegate, plans to step up his campaign to defeat slots today with appearances at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore and in Silver Spring. Neither location is under discussion for a slots parlor, but Franchot said he will warn that "slots, once introduced, will spread to every neighborhood and community in Maryland."

Some Democrats contended yesterday that former governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) engineered the GOP announcement on slots. Ehrlich was thwarted during his tenure in multiple efforts to legalize slots.

Henry Fawell, a former Ehrlich press aide who now works for his law firm, said GOP leaders sought Ehrlich's counsel but "this was solely their decision."

"Obviously, though, he thinks anything that stops the largest tax increase in history is a good thing," Fawell said.