Lawmakers reject slots bill

This is not original reporting. All information and quotes have been compiled from The Washington Post.

Lawmakers in Annapolis rejected Governor Ehrlich's plan to bring gambling to Maryland for the second year in a row. They passed the state's final balanced budget without slots near the close of the General Assembly's annual session.

According to The Washington Post, the slots bill died in the House Ways and Means Committee, made up of both Republicans and Democrats. Legalizing 15,500 slot machines in Maryland was one of the centerpieces of Ehrlich's policy initiatives since he took office in 2002.

Ehrlich and Senate President Thomas Mike V. Miller Jr. accused House Speaker Michael Busch of killing the bill and hurting Maryland's future. "Our session is over, and we are facing a fiscal hell next year. Where's the money going to come from without video lottery [slots] terminals? The House does not understand the huge damage they have done and the consequences," said Miller. He also called for a special summer legislative session to approve slots and then place the issue on the ballot for voters in November.

Busch said he would consider Miller's proposal and insisted that the reason the House did not pass slots was Ehrlich's refusal to consider the House's tax plan. According to The Washington Post, the House approved a plan to raise one billion dollars in tax revenues for the state. That money, combined with slots proceeds, that plan would have solved the state's long-term budget problems. Now, unless lawmakers take serious steps to find a solution, the state faces massive deficits next fiscal year.

Ehrlich said slots have made him feel like a political Charlie Brown who "always wanted to kick the field goal, and Lucy was always pulling that ball away at the end." Ehrlich said he would not propose another slots bill unless Busch first agreed to approve it. "I don't want to be Charlie Brown. If Lucy's going to hold that ball, I can kick it through the uprights and score one for the state of Maryland," said Ehrlich.

Although the slots bill did not pass, state lawmakers enacted a plan to cap tuition increases for college students and the country's first statewide living wage law. The living wage law would raise wages for contract employees paid with state money from $5.15 to $10.50 an hour. Ehrlich called both measures "veto bait."