The Ways and Means Committee of the Maryland House of Delegates is considering a bill sponsored by Delegates Simmons, Anderson, Arora, Barkley, Burns, Cane, Cluster, Conaway, Cullison, Dwyer, Gilchrist, Glenn, Gutierrez, Hough, Hucker, K. Kelly, Kramer, McConkey, McMillan, Myers, Parrott, B. Robinson, Serafini, Tarrant, Washington, and Wilson, that would change Maryland's current law that allocates revenues from slot machines. The portion of slots revenues (currently 7%) that goes to racetracks and purses, would be increased to 9.5%, but ENTIRELY diverted to school construction. Under this bill, race tracks and racing interests would no longer get any portion of slots revenue.
Here is the full text of the bill: http://mlis.state.md.us/2012rs/bills/hb/hb0376f.pdf
Here is a list of the members of the Ways & Means Committee:
Chair: Sheila E. Hixson Vice Chair: Samuel I. Rosenberg
Kathryn L. Afzali, Kumar P. Barve, Joseph C. Boteler III, Talmadge Branch. Jon S. Cardin,
Mark N. Fisher, C. William Frick, Ron George, Glen Glass, Carolyn J. B. Howard, Jolene Ivey,
Anne R. Kaiser, Eric G. Luedtke, Aruna Miller, LeRoy E. Myers, Jr., Justin D. oss, Andrew A. Serafini, Melvin L. Stukes, Michael Summers, Frank S. Turner, Jay Walker
For contact info for these Committee members, see: http://mlis.state.md.us/mgaweb/mail32.aspx
This is extremely disturbing. Unfortunate (and perhaps not a coincidence) that this bill was introduced little more than a week
ReplyDeleteafter the Horse Council meeting and one of the largest gatherings of horse people for the year at Horse World Expo.
Is this legislation a reaction to the failure to meet the requirements for obtaining monies from the purse account, or is it simply
a money-grab? What can Maryland Horse people and fans of Maryland racing do to stop this bill from becoming law as of July 1, 2012??