The Baltimore Sun reports that House of Delegates leaders are still searching from anywhere for four to ten more votes in order to pass slots. The House Ways and Means Committee is still discussing slots sites but has now removed Frederick and Harford Counties as possible slot sites. Senate President Mike Miller is starting to get hot under the collar:
But that's hardly the only complication. The Ways and Means Committee did not take up a companion bill that lays out the details of how a slots program would be implemented. Some delegates have said they could vote for a referendum to let the people decide on slots but not for the enabling bill, which has left that legislation short of the 71 votes it would need.
The possibility that the referendum bill could pass and the other bill could fail sent Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, the legislature's chief slots proponent, into a tirade. He called the idea of a referendum without enabling legislation "a fraud."
"Quit lying, cheating and stealing the public and convincing them you're doing something you're not," Miller said.
