Md. leaders squabble over slot bill defeat

Tom Stuckey

Monday, April 18, 2005 | 9:33 a.m.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- For two years, Gov. Robert Ehrlich and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller accused House Speaker Michael Busch of putting his personal feelings ahead of the will of the majority by orchestrating the defeat of slot machine legislation.

If Busch would just get out of the way -- so the governor and Senate president said -- the House would join the Senate in approving slot machine legislation.

Busch, who denied responsibility for killing slots legislation in 2003 and 2004, responded this year by pushing a slots bill through the House. But Ehrlich and Miller didn't like the Busch proposal and the outcome was the same. No slots for Maryland.

And so, the 2005 session ended with a lot of finger pointing and blame-game playing by the state's three most powerful officials.

Ehrlich and Miller had several major problems with the bill put together by Busch and key House leaders, beginning with the fact that it authorized fewer machines in fewer locations. The House bill permitted 9,500 machines. The Senate proposed 15,500. The House would have restricted slots to four specific venues. The Senate would have permitted up to 7 locations, to be determined later. The governor and the Senater also felt the House was being too stingy by offering companies that would operate slots facilities only 30 percent of the revenues.

When the House passed the bill in late February, Busch warned that it might die if the Senate insisted on making changes. He noted that the bill passed the House with the bare minimum 71 votes required for passage, a winning margin he said he would be hard pressed to match if the bill was sent back to the House.

"I didn't think I could recreate the same dynamics again," Busch said toward the end of the 90-day session when it became clear the bill would die for the third year in a row.

Busch described the House bill as "a pretty good product," and advised Miller and Ehrlich back in February that if they wanted to legalize slots in Maryland, they should take the House bill as is.

Miller, already frustrated with Busch's opposition to a bill he had been pushing for years, reacted angrily, accusing the speaker of refusing to negotiate with the Senate and adopting a "my way or the highway" approach.

"There's two separate bodies. We need to work together," Miller told a House committee as he tried late in the session to revive the bill.

Ehrlich and Miller argued that Busch really was not interested in passing slot machine legislation and sabotaged the effort by putting together a bill he knew the Senate would not accept.

"I never said my way or the highway," Busch said in response to Miller's complaints.