Officials Trade Barbs Over Slots
Rivalry Between Governor, Comptroller Overshadows Gambling Debate

By John Wagner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 17, 2008

Maryland's battle over legalizing slot machine gambling sharply escalated yesterday, with Gov. Martin O'Malley attacking Comptroller Peter Franchot as a hypocrite shortly before Franchot helped kick off a campaign to defeat a November referendum on the issue.

O'Malley (D), who is counting on slots revenue to balance the state budget in future years, pointed to Franchot's past support of slots as recently as 2001 while a member of the House of Delegates.

"The comptroller has had the wonderful luxury of sitting back and doing nothing to help us restore fiscal responsibility while throwing stones in a hypocritical way," O'Malley told reporters. "He's not at all ever troubled by his inherent contradictions, and he never saw two sides of an issue that he couldn't be simultaneously in favor of."

The slots referendum was authorized by the General Assembly last fall as part of a special session called to address the state's long-term finances. Lawmakers also approved $1.4 billion in annual tax increases and one of several rounds of budget cuts that have occurred since O'Malley took office last year.

As a Montgomery County delegate, Franchot (D) twice co-sponsored unsuccessful bills to legalize slot-machine gambling, in 1998 and in 2001. Franchot has acknowledged that his position has changed, saying yesterday that he has been a consistent slots opponent for the past seven years.

Franchot yesterday urged Marylanders not to buy arguments from O'Malley and others who have suggested that additional budget cuts or tax increases might be needed if the referendum fails.

"Consider the source," Franchot said at the campaign kickoff. "This fact is indisputable: The same folks who are pushing slots just passed through the largest tax increase in state history."

O'Malley and Franchot have clashed over several issues since taking office 15 months ago, and the animosity between their staffs is well known in Annapolis. Yesterday's comments, however, were by far the harshest O'Malley has leveled at Franchot, whose chief duty is as the state's tax collector.

O'Malley and Franchot both sit on the Board of Public Works, a panel that approves state contracts. O'Malley made his comments shortly after the panel's meeting ended yesterday.

Franchot later said he considered what O'Malley said "unfortunate."

"It is highly unusual for a sitting governor to attack another statewide official, especially a member of his own party," Franchot spokesman Joseph Shapiro said in a statement. "However, that is exactly what Governor O'Malley did today, and it is regrettable."

As a candidate for governor in 2006, O'Malley advocated allowing only a limited number of slot machines at racetracks and once called the idea of using slots proceeds to fund education "morally bankrupt." His position has since evolved.

The back-and-forth between the two separately elected Democratic officials largely overshadowed the gathering by Marylanders United to Stop Slots that was billed as the formal launch of the group's effort to defeat the referendum.

Voters will be asked whether the state should legalize as many as 15,000 slot machines at five racetracks and at other locations in Baltimore and in Allegany, Anne Arundel, Cecil and Worcester counties.

Franchot is among about 100 steering committee members whose names were released yesterday by the anti-slots group. Others include community, business and labor leaders, clergy and other elected officials.

Other speakers at yesterday's event presented varied arguments for why slots should be defeated.

Marvin L. Cheatham Sr., president of the Baltimore NAACP, predicted that slots would increase gambling addiction and prostitution.

Bishop John R. Schol of the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church cast the debate in religious terms, saying, "Slots are not of God."

Before the event, O'Malley questioned where slots opponents would get the "important dollars" that slots are expected to generate.

Asked by a reporter how he would replace the revenue if the referendum is defeated, Franchot offered no specifics. He said the state should be nurturing the life sciences sector, industries that would presumably contribute more to the tax base upon its growth.