Published: November 06, 2008 08:11 am      

State, county officials poised for slots parlor

Stakem could join facility location commission

CUMBERLAND — Maryland voters on Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment legalizing slot machines at five locations across the state, including up to 1,500 machines at Rocky Gap State Park.

But now what? State and local officials appear to be a bit confused as to what happens next. It all appears to start with Gov. Martin O’Malley. O’Malley is to initiate the next step with some administrative duties. One of those duties is to appoint members to the slots facility location commission.

Allegany County Commissioner Jim Stakem said Wednesday that he is to be a member of that commission. He said he talked with O’Malley and Appointments Secretary Jeanne Hitchcock several months ago.

“They asked if I’d be interested,” Stakem said. “I said yes. Nothing happened, of course” until the slots amendment passed.

“And here we are,” Stakem said.

O’Malley spokeswoman Christine Hansen said Wednesday that “no appointments have been made. That’s what he’s trying to do as quickly as possible.”

Stakem said he’s waiting for word on the commission’s first meeting. He said there’s bound to be “a lot of bumps to work out” along the way.

Stakem, along with Sen. George Edwards and Bob Brennan, executive director of the Maryland Economic Development Corp., which oversees operations at the facility, all said a solicitation for a request for proposals is to be released fairly soon. Gaming companies must apply for licenses by Feb. 1.

“We will begin talking to the various gaming companies that expressed interest” in Rocky Gap, said Brennan.

Brennan said in July that Rocky Gap is a bit more complicated as a slots parlor location because the legislation “doesn’t necessarily give them rights to build within the park or, for that matter, within the land which we ground-leased.”

Gaming companies have approached MEDCO about purchasing the lodge. Those conversations haven’t moved forward just yet. On Wednesday, Brennan said he would “expect they would want to connect whatever their gaming initiative is with the assets that we currently have.”

“The sale of the facility is not necessarily tied to or part of the slots initiative,” Brennan said. “So I think it’s a two-part proposition. One, if they want to come out here, we would be willing to subdivide our property to provide them a site for (the gaming) facility. Two, we would be willing to discuss with them and entertain any level of interest they would provide in terms of wanting to take over resort operations.”

Edwards supported — and was not surprised by — the passage of the referendum. He admitted he was surprised how easily Allegany County voters approved the measure. More than 63 percent of ballots cast were in favor of Question 2.

Still, any long-term revenue gain from slots, he said, is only one part of the package toward solving the state’s fiscal crisis.

“We (have) a spending problem,” Edwards said of lawmakers in Annapolis. “We gotta slow down spending in this state. We can’t increase (revenue) or tax our way out of the situation. I’m not sure you can find any years where there was a decrease in budget in spending.”

Edwards said some officials feel the revenue from legalized slots will “just give (lawmakers) more reason to spend more money.”

“It’ll help,” Edwards said. “Whether one likes slots or doesn’t like slots, it’s going to (help).”

One of the first bills Edwards said he plans to introduce in the 2009 legislative session is one that failed to be acted upon in the House of Delegates last spring. That bill would have permitted Allegany County government to use its 5.5 percent share of the slots revenue on projects anywhere within the county. The language of the law now reads the money can be used “in immediate proximity.”

“What does that mean?” Edwards said. “One mile from Rocky Gap? What’s there? (The bill) is a very reasonable request.”

Contact Kevin Spradlin at kspradlin@times-news.com.