At long last, racehorses may neigh with glee

by David Grand
October 10, 2007

Yes, sirree. This upcoming session of the General Assembly may well be when the stalemate over having slots at the racetracks is finally broken, after many years of frustration on the part of the 18,000 who depend on that industry for their livelihood, and who like me and most taxpayers have grown weary in hearing about untold millions being siphoned out of Maryland by tracks in adjoining states.

That petty politics played a major role in its bring shot down at past sessions goes without saying. Governor Glendening was adamantly against having slots at the tracks, who apparently believed, along with its ardent opponents, that they were the devil's tools, and that their introduction would open the doors to widespread corruption, with those who could least afford to lose more money than they already do playing lottery games affected the most.

Governor Ehrlich, on the other hand, was pro slots, having made it his top priority in his platform. But he never could get Senate President Mike (I'm the king of the hill) Miller and Speaker of the House Michael (I hate slots with a passion) Busch to agree on a slots bill. And if the truth be known, they weren't about to make Ehrlich look like a true champion of the taxpayers by bringing $500 to $600 million into the state's coffers annually, and all but guaranteeing his re-election.

So why am I brimming with optimism that this time around slots will be legalized at the tracks? It's not because I'm hallucinating more than usual in my advanced age, or that reality has finally dawned on those opposed to slots that it's time to throw in the sponge for the sake of rescuing the state from its financial woes.

No, the reasons are: that neither Miller nor Busch will want to undermine O'Malley's slot plans  for fear of looking like malcontents and disloyal to the party; that his  strategy in proposing placing 9,500 slots at "a couple of racetracks and at two other locations" was a master stroke, since that's the same number that the House approved at last year's session by one vote; and that  his conceding to Busch's preference for slots to be state-owned rather than by the owners of the tracks was a deft move on his part.

But even though it appears that those engaged in the "Sport of Kings" may be on the brink of celebrating a long delayed triumph, there's still a potential bugaboo that could turn victory into defeat.

And that is, if last year's donnybrook between Miller and Busch over the numbers and locations of slots is replayed once again, with neither willing to compromise on their previously proposed figures of having the 9,500 authorized in the House bill versus the 15,000 Miller wanted-and who still does.

Not incidentally, that  latter figure is what Republican leaders have also recently proposed, who intend to use it as a bargaining chip in achieving their goal of preventing any tax increases, an issue they vowed to "dig in on." They better have washcloths handy to wipe off the dirt thrown in their face by the Democrats.

Hopefully, the governor will be able to persuade those two antagonists to find some middle ground to agree on and to bury the hatchet in other than one another's head. That's a lot to ask of 'em, considering they've been feuding for longer than the Hatfields and McCoys. But then again, who ever thought Bush's daddy and Clinton could ever become bosom buddies?