Slots Supporters Brace For Vote In Senate
Apr 28, 2004
Supporters of slot machines at Bangor Raceway
braced for a showdown in the Senate this week,
readying a final effort to strip a newly proposed
state tax from the bill they say could derail - or
at least delay - the project.
"It's trying to feed the tiger enough food so he
won't bite you in the rear end ... so we can get
this thing up and running," Denise McNitt of the
Maine Harness Horsemen's Association said of her
group's efforts to give the state enough slots
revenue to cover its administrative costs while
lowering the tax burden on the project.
McNitt's comments came on the heels of an
Appropriations Committee vote Monday to send the
bill, LD 1820, back to the Senate with the new tax
- a 1 percent levy on the amount wagered in the
machines - intact.
The Senate, which already has given its
conditional approval to the bill, most likely will
take up the issue today. The House already has
given its final approval to the bill barring any
changes.
The Appropriations Committee vote came despite
intensified lobbying efforts to jettison the tax,
expected to net the state upward of $8 million a
year once a Bangor facility reaches its capacity
of 1,500 slot machines.
The tax would be in addition to the 39 percent
share of slots revenue after winnings are paid
that the state already stands to receive under the
bill. Only 3 percent would be devoted to
administrative costs, with much of the rest going
to the Fund for Healthy Maine or returned as purse
supplements to horsemen.
Under a plan to be introduced today by McNitt's
group, the horsemen would return part of their
share to the state for the first three years to
help with startup costs. In turn, the state would
remove the new tax, added in the late days of the
session as a way to close a $500,000 shortfall in
the state's costs.
But now, with just days remaining in the session
and little sentiment among lawmakers to tinker
with the controversial bill, the horsemen's
efforts could be in vain.
"They're being faced with the political reality
that the amendment doesn't have any wheels," said
Sen. Kenneth Gagnon, the Waterville Democrat who
crafted much of LD 1820, a replacement for a
citizen-initiated referendum initially allowing
slots at the state's harness racing tracks.
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