ANNAPOLIS — The 2004 legislative session apparently will end Monday without passage of a major tax increase and without approval of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s plan to bring slot-machine gambling to Maryland.
Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. yesterday said the slot-machine bill was dead after a House committee failed for the second straight year to vote on the bill passed by the Senate.
Both Mr. Miller, Prince George’s County Democrat, and House Speaker Michael E. Busch said the $670 million tax package approved earlier by the House of Delegates has no chance of becoming law this year.
Mr. Busch, Anne Arundel County Democrat, said the House Ways and Means Committee would vote on the slots bill before the midnight adjournment Monday, but Mr. Miller said that vote would be meaningless.
“It would be just for show. It would just be to minimize the major political damage to the Democratic Party,” the Senate president said. “I’m done talking. It’s wasted energy.”
Mr. Ehrlich’s aides said the Republican governor does not plan to continue pushing for enactment of his slot machine bill.
“We’re done with this issue,” said Paul Schurick, Mr. Ehrlich’s communications director. “It appears in hindsight the speaker never had any intention of bringing a genuine bill to a genuine vote — for the second year in a row.”
With slot machines and the House tax package off the table, legislative leaders and the administration moved on to other pressing business, including the state budget and some lesser tax increases that will be needed to keep the budget for fiscal 2005, which begins July 1, in the black.
Mr. Miller had held up work on the budget in an effort to pressure Mr. Busch to bring the slots bill out of committee. He relented yesterday and agreed to the appointment of two committees of House and Senate negotiators to resolve differences over the budget and a separate bill that provides some new revenue needed to balance the budget.
The administration also continued to lobby for passage of other Ehrlich initiatives, including a $30-a-year fee on sewer charges to upgrade treatment plants, creation of a new state agency to oversee programs for the disabled and changes to the state program guaranteeing minority-owned firms a share of state contracts.
Even though Mr. Busch said he would relent on the tax package so the budget could be passed and the legislative session concluded on time, the speaker praised House Democrats for having the courage to vote for a tax package that included a 1-cent increase in the sales tax and a temporary surcharge on income taxes paid by affluent Marylanders.
“They came down here and made a tough decision,” Mr. Busch said.
But Mr. Miller said it was folly to propose big tax increases that would only be vetoed by the governor.
“It’s crazy. It’s inane. It’s stupid. It’s out of this world,” he said.
Mr. Ehrlich had said repeatedly that he would not accept any significant tax increases, even as part of a deal to secure passage of his bill to put as many as 15,500 slot machines at six Maryland locations.
Mr. Miller had cast himself in the role of a mediator, trying to broker a compromise on slots and taxes between the governor and the speaker.
“I was willing to find that middle ground, but these two major players are worlds apart on issues,” he said. “The governor was never, ever going to compromise on a billion dollars’ worth of new taxes. Everyone knows that.”
The slots bill was proposed by Mr. Ehrlich as a way to raise $800 million or more for the state and help out the horse-racing industry at the same time.
Racetrack owners waged intense lobbying campaigns the past two years, saying they needed financial help from gambling to compete with tracks in Delaware and West Virginia that have slot machines.
Paul Micucci, vice president of Magna Entertainment Corp., principal owner of Pimlico and Laurel race courses, declined to comment on Mr. Miller’s declaration that the slots bill is dead.
“I’m waiting until Monday to see if someone’s producing a bill before I comment,” he said.
Maryland drivers will see an increase in their vehicle registration fees beginning this summer, after senators gave final approval yesterday to Mr. Erhlich’s transportation fee package.
Senators voted 29-18 to approve the governor’s bill, which narrowly won passage in the House last month and will become law with the governor’s signature. Mr. Ehrlich still supports the legislation, even though House lawmakers stripped $90 million from it in committee.
“Governor Ehrlich has achieved a victory today on behalf of Marylanders who suffer on congested highways in traffic jams,” Transportation Secretary Robert Flanagan said.
The legislation, which would raise $165 million a year for road projects and mass transit, calls for registration fee increases beginning July 1. Drivers would pay an average of $128 to register their cars every other year, up from $81. Truck and sport utility vehicle owners would pay $180 every two years, up from $108.
The package will generate $233 million a year for the transportation trust fund; most will come from the registration-fee increase.
The Department of Transportation has not determined how it will spend most of the fund, a third of which will go to local governments for roads and transit.
• Gretchen Parker contributed to this report.
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