ANNAPOLIS — Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. said yesterday that fellow Democrat and leading House member Michael E. Busch is trying to kill the Ehrlich administration’s slot-machines legislation for a second year in a row.
“I think there is no question [Mr. Busch] is delaying the vote on this bill,” said Mr. Miller, of Prince George’s County.
Mr. Busch, the House speaker who is from Anne Arundel County, acknowledged having no problem allowing the bill to languish again in the House Ways and Means Committee.
“If it dies in committee, it dies in committee like everything else,” said Mr. Busch, who prefers a $670 million sales- and income-tax increase over money from slot machines to increase state revenue.
But with just five days until the legislative session ends, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican, has shown little sign of compromise on his promise not to increase taxes.
“If the goal here is slots for taxes, there is no deal,” said Mr. Ehrlich. He also acknowledged no longer being optimistic about lawmakers’ agreeing to his proposal.
Mr. Ehrlich wants to put 15,500 slot machines at three horse tracks and three emporiums to raise about $800 million for the court-mandated $1.3 billion Thornton Education Act to improve the quality of public education. The Senate has passed the proposal, but it remains stuck without a vote in the House committee.
Mr. Miller said the bill at least should be put to a House vote.
“I am frustrated,” he said. “This is probably one of the worst [General Assembly] sessions I have ever had, because I know what people want … and the majority of people want slots and that is our base and we should give them that.”
Mr. Ehrlich reiterated that news reports were incorrect in quoting him as saying predominantly white communities such as Timonium and the Ocean City area near Ocean Downs racetrack are off-limits for slots because they are “family” oriented.
“No one has ever heard that statement,” he said.
The reported statement and Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele’s position that blacks will not be guaranteed ownership of proposed slots emporiums in Prince George’s County have cost the administration support within the 42-member Maryland Legislative Black Caucus.
“I am concerned about losing any votes of any members for a poor reason or an inaccurate reason,” Mr. Ehrlich said.
With the prospect of losing as many as four emporiums in Prince George’s County, Mr. Ehrlich this week discussed a site in downtown Baltimore.
The proposed site would be called Baltimore Gateway International and would be built on about 189 acres just west of Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
The plan calls for a state-owned site on an industrial and warehouse section between Russell Street and Washington Boulevard that would cost about $351 million and would host the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown, now run at Pimlico Racetrack in Baltimore’s struggling Park Heights community.
The proposed site also is off Interstate 95, where Mr. Ehrlich would like to build slot emporiums.
The Maryland Stadium Authority plan also calls for a 12,000-seat grandstand that could be expanded to about 75,000 seats for the Preakness race. The authority’s eight-page report also lists potential problems, such as the need for more land, CSX Railroad lines, nearby homes and the need to relocate businesses.
Alison Asti, the authority’s acting executive director, said the agency liked the idea and took the initiative to draft tentative plans.
Mr. Ehrlich said the proposal appealed to him but that it was not a “deal-maker or a deal-breaker.”
“The racetrack issue is an issue for another day,” Mr. Ehrlich said.
If Mr. Busch and Mr. Miller agree on one issue, it is that an emporium is unlikely to be built in downtown Baltimore this year.
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