Political necessity led to slots turmoil

Events that consumed only three minutes and occurred two years ago planted the political vines asphyxiating the slot machine process in Anne Arundel County.

For months, the County Council and the state's Video Lottery Facility Location Commission have been in a stalemate over Cordish Cos.' proposal to put 4,750 slots at Arundel Mills mall in Hanover.

The source of the problem is a provision that was inserted into the slots constitutional amendment with little floor debate during the 2007 special session. Because of 17 words, Cordish cannot just get the state commission to approve a license, as the Baltimore firm also needs zoning approved by the council.

"A video lottery facility shall comply with all applicable planning and zoning laws of the local jurisdiction," the amendment says.

At the moment, it appears some sort ofresolution may finally come. Two dueling bills, one that would move Cordish forward and another meant quash its development, are coming up for debate Dec. 7 in the County Council.

That timing roughly coincides with a Dec. 17 meeting of the slots location commission that has been set as an informal deadline for action on the Cordish proposal.

"The sooner the (council) can resolve this, the better," Gov. Martin O'Malley said last week. "Either way they go, we can move forward."

But the stalemate has been yet another vestige of the special session, a gut-wrenching fiscal exercise that resulted in historic tax increases. Faced with a $1.5 billion deficit and the need to cobble together enough votes, the General Assembly had to send slots to the voters with compromises such as the local zoning provision.

Back in 2007, legislators did not see the zoning provision as a potential obstacle since voters would get their own say in a referendum. Last year, slots were resoundingly approved by almost 60 percent of voters statewide and in Anne Arundel County, a large amount of political cover.

"Our margins were very narrow," House Speaker Michael E. Busch, D-Annapolis, said last week. "They saw (the zoning provision) as a good government issue."

And without those compromises, the entire session could have - and almost did - crumble into pieces.

The House of Delegates had been working for just about an hour on Nov. 16, 2007, a cool, clear morning that marked the 19th day of a special session called by O'Malley to fix a $1.5 billion deficit.

The topic: a constitutional amendment to allow slot machines at five sites, including one within two miles of Baltimore-Washington Parkway in Anne Arundel County, that would be put on the 2008 ballot.

The previous day - and the previous weeks - had been very tense. A House subcommittee had scrapped a bill containing the slots program that would have been triggered by voter approval, igniting verbal fusillades between Busch and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert.

No GOP support

Compounding the problem was an almost total lack of Republican support. Although the minority party had historically supported expanded gambling, it objected to O'Malley's budget plan as a whole and could flex political muscle on an issue with such slim margins.

"We're going to need to see the governor is serious about two things: No. 1, reducing spending, and No. 2, not relying on the largest tax increase in Maryland history to solve the structural deficit," House Minority Whip Christopher Shank, R-Washington, said at the time. "When he's serious about doing that, I think you'll see a lot more Republican support for slots."

That situation put the vote counts in a spiral: some Democrats could only support slots under a constitutional amendment sent to referendum, a process that needed three-fifths approval rather than a simple majority, which then necessitated trying to sway other unenthusiastic politicians with different demands.

Against that background, Del. A. Wade Kach offered his amendment to require any slots facility to "comply with all applicable planning and zoning laws of the local jurisdiction."

Kach, a Republican who has a background as a former math teacher and auditor, said his amendment would safeguard the public's reliance on zoning and planning laws.

"It ensures that there is a relationship between the zoning laws and that this facility just can't be forced on a county without any county input into how the facility shall be built, and etc.," he said.

Publicly, at least, there was no debate on the matter, other than an extra clarification of what the amendment would do. Del. Sheila Hixson, D-Montgomery, the chairwoman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said it was a "friendly" amendment.

The amendment passed on a voice vote.

No change

Kach, who was unavailable for comment last week, eventually joined four other Republicans to give the House 86 votes on the constitutional amendment, just one more than the required three-fifths majority.

With such a thin victory, there was little chance the Senate would make any modifications like taking out the zoning provision. If the Senate had, it would have triggered more debate and votes in the House and potentially endangered such a fragile coalition.

Miller, a vocal slots proponent, has frequently bemoaned the final slots product that became law and characterized it as significantly watered down. He said last week that all of the concessions essentially "compromised" the bill.

He pointed to one part of the slots program that limits the entertainment options at the Worcester County site to fireworks and a single piano player.

"What a terrible amendment," he said.

But Miller recognized the dynamics in the House were difficult, especially since Busch has been a long-time opponent of gambling.

"I don't think it was intentional, but they made it very difficult to implement," he said. "(Busch) had to deal with people … who could justify it (only) if it was put on referendum and had local zoning control."

For now, Miller hopes a resolution to the zoning question is completed by the time the General Assembly reconvenes next year.

"I'm out of the slots business for now. We put everything in play as best as we possibly could," he said. "Hopefully by the time we get to session the commission will have said, 'You got to fish or cut bait.' "