Md. Leaders Pitch New Deal on Slots

Special Legislative Session Seems Unlikely

The prospects are quickly dimming for the Maryland General Assembly to convene a summer session aimed at resolving nagging debates over slot machine gambling and medical malpractice, legislative leaders said last week.

House leaders will offer top aides to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) a final chance tomorrowat reaching a compromise on legalized gambling, House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) said. The deal would give the governor wide latitude over the details of a gambling expansion but in return ask that he put the matter before voters in November -- an approach Ehrlich repeatedly has said he does not like.

"I think, at this point, we need a definite position from the governor," Busch said.

Without the governor on board, Busch said, he sees no chance for the matter to be resolved this summer.

Ehrlich was on vacation and could not be reached, but Maryland Budget Secretary James C. DiPaula said that the governor's views on authorizing slots through a constitutional amendment have not changed in recent days and are not likely to change.

The governor "hasn't ruled out" allowing the issue to go on the ballot, but he needs lawmakers to first agree on a program that lays out such pivotal details as the number and location of slot machines that would be permitted, DiPaula said.

The bottom line, he said, is that "there's no need to take this to a constitutional amendment. The constitution is the guiding document for your state. It should not be amended by whim."

Under Maryland law, the only way for lawmakers to put a question on the ballot is in the form of a constitutional amendment.

At the same time, intense discussion about medical malpractice insurance -- an issue Ehrlich has termed a crisis because it risks driving doctors, particularly obstetricians, out of business -- has not brought state leaders any closer to an agreement.

All parties say the prospects for a summer session on medical malpractice continue to appear remote, given a lack of consensus on how to proceed. Separate task forces created by Ehrlich and the Senate now plan to study the issue into the fall, while House leaders are mulling the resurrection of a bipartisan panel that worked on the issue during the past legislation session.

That said, some House leaders are holding out hope for an agreement on both topics, in the fall if not this summer. Del. Sheila E. Hixson (D-Montgomery) said the issues are so hotly disputed that there is a risk the legislature will be consumed by them when it formally reconvenes in January.

"I think a decision should be made on both of these issues," Hixson said. Otherwise, they will "cloud everything else," she said.

Del. John A. Hurson (D-Montgomery) said he hopes that, when presented with the latest offer on gambling, the governor will agree.

House leaders may agree tomorrow to offer Ehrlich substantial latitude in designing a slots plan, as long as he agrees to put it before the voters, Hurson said. That could mean scrapping the latest House and Senate plans and returning to an early concept for slots that placed the terminals only at the state's horse racing tracks.