Radamase Cabrera, a longtime political activist and astute observer of Maryland politics, never bought the “slots or taxes” debate roaring through the chambers and backrooms of the General Assembly.
“It’s a dishonest discussion,” Mr. Cabrera says. “It’s dishonest because this is not nearly about funding Thornton as much it as about letting gambling become the economic engine that drives Maryland for the next 20 years.”
Thornton is the name of a $1.3 billion, court-mandated education-reform law that attempts to reduce the disparity between rich and poor public school districts in the state.
Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican, and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., a Democrat, say that with Maryland facing a huge budget deficit, proceeds from legalized gambling are the only way to fund the education bill. Not so, says House Speaker Michael E. Busch, who led that chamber in passing a $670 million package of tax increases. The fourth-richest state in the nation needs to generate additional funds not only to pay for Thornton, but also to keep pace with the rising costs of a host of other state services.
Mr. Ehrlich has placed all bets on slots, saying he will veto any bill that calls for new taxes. Mr. Busch, a Democrat, upped the ante by refusing to allow a vote on slots unless the governor allows the tax increases. Mr. Miller and the Senate have been pushed aside as mere spectators.
Only the public stands to lose in this political poker game.
“It’s a ridiculous argument,” says Mr. Cabrera, a registered Democrat. “If they told us we had to have slots to pay for picking up the garbage, we’d think they were crazy. So why should we accept that we have to have slots to pay for books?”
Mr. Cabrera points out that across the Potomac River from where some Maryland legislators are pushing to establish a Casinoland as an economic engine for Prince George’s County, Virginia legislators are fighting to put $100 million in their education system. “Where’s that commitment toward making a first-class education system in Maryland, where instead tuition has gone up and they’re cutting services?” he asked.
As the deadline for the Maryland General Assembly to pass a budget with or without legalized gambling draws near, Mr. Cabrera says “both the Democratic and Republican leadership are failing the state.”
“The statistics don’t add up. The earliest the state would realize any revenues from slots, especially if you’re talking about building from scratch, is two to three years away,” Mr. Cabrera said. “What happens in the meantime?”
Never mind the moral ramifications of state-dependent, state-supported gambling, which do not bode well either; that’s like counting on winning the weekly lottery to pay the monthly mortgage.
Mr. Cabrera’s biggest concern is that, once the state sanctions slots, it may “go down the slippery slope of bigger slots, bigger prizes and bigger casinos to offer more to beat the competition.”
As an urban planner, Mr. Cabrera views the slots slugfest in terms of establishing a long-term industry to provide jobs and lucrative contracts in a state that has suffered a major loss of industrial businesses.
As a political observer, he also sees the fight as one for political power, because the outcome will determine who, in what regions, will control Maryland’s resources.
Look at how the Prince George’s delegation alone has flexed its muscle to obstruct the slots measures in the House Ways and Means Committee.
Although Marylanders tend to favor slots, according to some polls, no one wants the gambling emporiums and eventual casinos in their pristine back yards. As NIMBY conflicts arise, just figuring out a fair place, such as Timonium or Rocky Gap or Ocean Downs, to place the one-armed bandits presents more setbacks.
I wonder whether the Republican lawmakers who have pushed so hard for slots instead of modest tax increases will be so willing to vote for the machines now that House members have shifted the proposed slot venues from predominantly black locales to their predominantly white districts?
Slots, as Mr. Cabrera and others contend, are nothing more than a tax on the poor and working class who are more likely to gamble on slots and the lottery than on the stock market. No one is proposing additional “fees” or taxes on dividends. No, just the opposite.
Maryland’s poor should not bear the brunt of shoring up the cost for state services for all. For those worried about the gambling money that goes to neighboring jurisdictions, they should be equally upset about corporate-tax loopholes that allow those lucrative funds to slip across the border.
Mr. Cabrera is right. It doesn’t take a mathematical genius to figure out that even if slot machines were put on every milepost in Maryland, the actual numbers and budget-busting formulas are so esoteric that lawmakers would be irresponsible to gamble the future of the state on its supposed gambling addiction.
Mr. Cabrera is right. The state’s leadership ought to come clean about their “slots or taxes” ruse and put an end to their “dishonest discussion.”
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