Question 2

Of the ballot questions in this year’s elections, the one I’m undecided on it Question 2. Even though I don’t have kids, I’m all for bettering schools (and hopefully, bettering our next generation… the one that will take care of us in our old ages!). But there has been some controversy about how much of the slots revenue would be spent on education; the ballot lists the primary purpose as “raising revenue for education of children in public schools, prekindergarten through grade 12, public school construction and improvements, and capital projects at community colleges and other higher education institutions.” Note the word “primary.” So I searched for a breakdown of how slots revenue would be distributed. The largest proportion will indeed go to education… but it’s less than half of the revenue:

• 48.5% to an Education Trust Fund, supporting “Bridge to Excellence” (or “Thornton”) funding, as quoted above.
• 33% to slots operations, a low allocation by industry standards. Prospective slots operators must bid competitively for a license and pay an initial license fee of at least $3 million for every 500 slot machines at a venue. These fees would go to the Education Trust Fund. License holders would be required to pay $425 per slot machine per year to fund a hotline and assistance programs for problem gamblers.
• 7% to a purse dedication account, 80% of which will go to thoroughbred racing purses and 20% to standard-bred purses.
• 5.5% to local impact grants for jurisdictions where slots are located. Of that, almost 18% would go to Baltimore City for community revitalization in Park Heights and other Northwest Baltimore locations. The rest would be divided among all jurisdictions that have slots, based on gross revenue generated in each.
• 2.5% to a racetrack renewal fund.
• 2% to the lottery commission to cover costs of governing slots operations.
• 1.5% to an account to provide investment capital and loans to small, minority- and women-owned businesses.

It seems to come down to a “not in my neighborhood” feeling, and if I don’t want it in my own neighborhood, I don’t like to vote it into others’. I don’t know… how will YOU vote on this issue?

(Source: “The unvarnished facts about how slots revenue would be used” commentary by Donald C. Fry. Maryland Daily Record. 10.23.08)