The House narrowly approved a constitutional amendment Friday that will let voters decide whether to legalize slot machine gambling in a referendum next November.
The measure passed 86-52, just one vote more than the three-fifths supermajority needed to amend the constitution. The plan places up to 15,000 slot machines at locations in Baltimore City and Allegany, Anne Arundel, Cecil and Worcester counties.
House Speaker Michael Busch, D-Anne Arundel, said it was time for the voters to decide the fate of an issue that has dominated proceedings in Annapolis for years.
“For five years, we have not been able to” reach consensus on slots, Busch said, adding “86 members felt this was important enough to” allow the citizens to decide.
But the House’s work on slots is only half done. The chamber still needs to pass accompanying legislation that details how slots revenues will be divided and slot machine parlors supervised.
Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, D-Calvert, said earlier Friday that both slots bills must be passed during the special legislative session, comparing the referendum without the companion bill to a car without a motor.
“It doesn’t go, it doesn’t work,” Miller said. “I said, ‘Look it’s not going to work, it’s going to be a fraud on the public.’ . . . So basically my position is either try the best you can, you can either pass two bills or no bills.”
Busch said he was not sure whether there are enough votes in the House to pass the second slots bill, but that the chamber would “continue to work hard” on the legislation.
Some lawmakers who voted for the referendum said they were not sure they could support the companion bill.
“I’ve got to give that one some thought,” said Delegate Dereck Davis, D-Prince George’s, after the referendum vote. “But I need to take a deep breath first.”
Slots are a major part of the revenue package Gov. Martin O’Malley proposed to bridge a projected $1.7 billion shortfall in next year’s budget.
O’Malley called Friday’s vote “the most difficult” of the special legislative session, saying it could be “a major tipping point” as the House tries to pass the companion slots bill and both chambers try to reconcile the tax plans they passed last week.
Both the House and Senate are due back Saturday to continue work.
A House panel Friday night finalized its changes to the second slots bill, producing a plan slightly different from that passed by the Senate last week. The full Ways and Means Committee is scheduled to begin considering the plan Saturday morning.
The House referendum plan that passed Friday is also similar to that of the Senate. The House passed just one amendment to that bill Friday, mandating that slot machine parlors comply with local zoning ordinances in response to delegates who complained that the wishes of local governments were being ignored.
The House bill also states any further gambling expansions can only occur with a majority vote of both houses of the General Assembly and a referendum. The Senate bill requires only a three-fifths majority of both houses.
Two other amendments, offered by Delegate Luiz Simmons, D-Montgomery, an ardent slots foe, both failed by narrow margi