No slots. No casinos. No exceptions.
No more.
Gov. Parris N. Glendening's unwavering opposition to the expansion of gambling in Maryland was cast aside last week with the election of Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.
But legalizing slot machines in time to help Maryland's $1.7 billion budget shortfall is no sure thing. While many in the General Assembly's Democratic leadership stand with Ehrlich, the new Republican governor-elect will have far from universal support even from members of his party.
Ehrlich wants slots to be approved in 2003 as a regular law, but most legislators say the only way they would support slots is to send the question to referendum, letting voters make the final decision on expanding gambling and delaying any action until after the 2004 election.
"I basically believe the best approach is to let the public decide," said Del. Howard P. Rawlings, the influential Baltimore Democrat who has introduced slots bills the past two years and intends to do so again in 2003. "I think a lot of my colleagues are more comfortable with that approach."
Such a delay would leave Ehrlich with a huge hole in his vision of how to fix Maryland's budget woes - laying the groundwork for a struggle in the 2003 Assembly session.
"Some legislators will find slots a necessary evil and other legislators will find it necessary, but a budget must be introduced in January that is balanced, and a budget must be passed in April that is in balance," said Ehrlich spokesman Paul E. Schurick.
"There are two ways to do it: reducing expenditures and increasing revenues, with slots obviously being in the latter category. The alternative to increasing revenues through slot machines would be massive increases in taxes."
For supporters and opponents of slot machine gambling, Ehrlich's victory last week injected a spark into an issue that had been stalemated by Glendening's adamant opposition.
Like Glendening, Democrat Kathleen Kennedy Townsend opposed legalizing slots and had vowed that she would block any legislation.
But Ehrlich has long supported slots to help Maryland's struggling horse racing industry. Early in the campaign, he promised to use revenue from slot machine gambling to help the tracks and boost spending on public schools.
His plan calls for slots at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Laurel Park in Anne Arundel County, Rosecroft in Prince George's County and a track planned near Cumberland in Allegany County.
"To quote from Governor Ehrlich's acceptance speech, 'I hope our time in the desert is over,'" said Joseph A. De Francis, president and chief executive officer of the Maryland Jockey Club. "We've been at a severe competitive disadvantage for the past six years.
"Governor Ehrlich brings a major change in direction that is going to help protect and preserve an industry that employs close to 20,000 Marylanders."
Opponents of slots say Ehrlich's election was a setback but vow to carry their fight to the Assembly. "It would have been a fight no matter who won, and this makes it a little tougher," said Kim Roman of NoCasiNo Maryland. "But we're not giving up hope, not by any means."
Yet even Townsend acknowledges that Ehrlich's victory will likely bring swift action in the Assembly. "I think it will go right through," she told reporters Thursday during a family hike near Annapolis.
Nevertheless, legislative leaders are hesitant to characterize passage of slots as a slam-dunk - particularly in the Senate.
"It hasn't been drafted yet," Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller told reporters Thursday when he announced his new committee leadership. "It's got to be done the right way."
Smoothing the way
Miller - who supports slot machines only at racetracks but does not believe they are the answer to budget problems - is already working to ease passage through his chamber.
In naming committee leaders last week, he picked Sen. Ulysses Currie of Prince George's to head Budget and Taxation and selected Sen. Thomas M. Middleton of Charles County to lead Finance. Because Middleton opposes slots, Miller said all gambling bills would go to Currie's budget committee.
But a fight on the floor is sure to be difficult. "I believe we would filibuster," said Sen. Roy P. Dyson, a St. Mary's County Democrat. "This ranks up there with those other big issues - abortion, gun control. It would be a big fight."
Nor could slots legislation count on support from all of the Senate's 14 Republicans, despite a GOP governor pushing it.
"At this point, I don't intend to vote for it," said Sen. J. Lowell Stoltzfus, an Eastern Shore Republican and the Senate minority leader. "There will be from both parties people that oppose it."
Even many slots supporters aren't backing the immediate legalization plan that Ehrlich wants. Instead, most say it's an issue that ought to be decided by voters at polls.
"I campaigned that I would support slots for racetracks only, only after it goes to referendum," said Sen. Paula C. Hollinger, a Baltimore County Democrat and a newly named Senate committee chairwoman. "I think it's an issue the people deserve a say on."
Similarly, most leading House Republicans and Democrats say they will back only slots legislation that requires a referendum.
"I'm personally opposed to slots and I don't want to see our children's education balanced on slots," said Del. Maggie L. McIntosh, a Baltimore Democrat and the House majority leader. "The only way I would ever support any notion or discussion of slots is to put it on a referendum for the people, and within that referendum there would be protection for the communities and a limit to racetrack locations only."
'Much easier to sell'
Del. Alfred W. Redmer Jr., a Baltimore County Republican and the House minority leader, said he personally opposes gambling. But during the campaign, he found broad support among voters for slot machines at racetracks. McIntosh found similar feelings among her constituents, and a poll taken for The Sun in September found that a plurality of Marylanders support it.
Redmer said that putting slot machines to a referendum "certainly will be much easier to sell" to lawmakers. "But I don't know that Bob [Ehrlich] is going to want to settle for that," he said.
Ehrlich's budget plan relies on $385 million from slots in the fiscal year beginning July 1. It assumes that the Assembly will pass a plan in the 2003 session, allowing machines to be at racetracks by spring 2004.
If the Assembly decided to send the issue to referendum in the 2004 election, that would delay slots revenues for at least two years. (If slots were passed in legislation, opponents could try to petition the Assembly's action for referendum on their own, but the courts might not allow it.)
As a strategy during the coming session, Ehrlich might try to follow the approach of former Gov. William Donald Schaefer during Maryland's budget crisis of more than a decade ago.
To convince the Assembly of the need to raise taxes, Schaefer submitted such an austere budget that new revenues were approved. Ehrlich could do the same with the $1.3 billion deficit projected for next year.
Schurick, Ehrlich's spokesman, declined to discuss the governor-elect's budget negotiating plans.
But Rawlings is already drafting two slots bills, neither of which would relieve immediate budget woes. One measure would put slots to a referendum in the 2004 election. The other would legalize slots, but before they were permitted at a track, the voters in that jurisdiction would have to approve in a state-funded special election.
"I never proposed legalizing slots immediately, nor do I subscribe to it," Rawlings said. "He can't achieve it. His budget proposals didn't wash. We need to work together to resolve this budget shortfall, but you can't do it off the backs of slot machines."
But some suggest that a combination of spending cuts and slot machine revenues could offer a less painful solution.
"I don't see a better solution at this point," said Del. Robert L. Flanagan, a Howard County Republican who has previously opposed slots but is leaning toward backing Ehrlich's plan.
"Governor Ehrlich will take the leadership in solving this crisis. If the legislature has better alternatives, then they need to try to put them on the table.
"As for a referendum, we just had one. It was called an election. Ehrlich got elected, and he didn't keep it a secret that he supported slots."
Sun staff writers David Nitkin and Ivan Penn contributed to this article.