Slots Foe Says He's Willing to Negotiate

But Busch Opposes A Gas Tax Increase

House Speaker Michael E. Busch said that "any expansion of gaming should be limited." (By James M. Thresher -- The Washington Post)

House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) said yesterday that he would not rule out a modest slot-machine gambling plan as part of a broader solution to Maryland's financial problems, but he suggested it could be a difficult sell at the same time lawmakers are proposing tax increases.

He also expressed concerns about the possibility of increasing the gas tax to pay for transportation projects, an idea Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) said this week he is considering supporting.

Busch, who has been among the legislature's most ardent foes of expanded gambling, left the door open to compromise, saying that "any expansion of gaming should be limited."

"I don't rule out anything," he said at a lunch meeting with Washington Post editors and reporters.

With a nearly $1.5 billion budget shortfall looming in Maryland's $15 billion general fund, Busch also suggested that legislators consider raising corporate income tax and sales tax rates and applying the sales tax to services now exempt, such as automobile repairs and health club memberships.

But Busch said he opposes a gas tax increase because it would unfairly burden lower-income people. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) has proposed a 12-cent increase in the gas tax.

"None of this is going to be easy, none of it," said Busch, who ascended to his leadership post in 2003, the same year that former governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) took office.

Busch spent much of the subsequent four years at odds with Ehrlich and Miller over slots, which could yield as much as $800 million a year for the state under some proposals.

The issue has reemerged as O'Malley and lawmakers confront a deficit in the state fiscal year that starts in July 2008.

Miller has vowed that legalization of slots is "something that's going to happen" in the coming year. O'Malley has expressed support for an unspecified but "limited number" of slot machines at horse racing tracks as a means to help the industry survive. But at O'Malley's behest, lawmakers shelved debate over the issue during his first legislative session, which ended April 9.

Even with the support of O'Malley and Miller, Busch said he believes slots are "going to be a tough sell to a lot of people."

Busch suggested GOP support for slots could erode with Ehrlich no longer in office. And he questioned whether lawmakers will have the appetite to simultaneously seek two major controversial initiatives -- tax increases and expanded gambling.