Miller: O’Malley likely to propose referendum on slots

Special session schedule decided by leaders

Miller and House Speaker Michael E. Busch met with O’Malley (D) behind closed doors on Monday to hammer out details of a special legislative session, which begins Monday, Oct. 29.

The session will open with a joint session at 8 p.m. with an address from O’Malley.

The chambers will hold joint hearings on O’Malley’s tax package; the schedule is expected to be posted on the General Assembly’s Web site Tuesday. The slots hearing is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 2.

‘‘I hope with good luck and hard work, we have everything concluded in the two-week period,” said Miller (D-Dist 27) of Chesapeake Beach.

The state faces a $1.7 billion gap between revenue and spending for the fiscal 2009 budget, which lawmakers will pass next year. The special session has been called to pass revenue measures that would take effect in January.

The governor has proposed a broad range of tax measures, including a 20 percent increase in the sales tax, a 14 percent increase in the corporate income tax, a doubling of the cigarette tax, new tax brackets for the wealthiest Marylanders, the closure of two corporate tax ‘‘loopholes” and a 20 percent increase in the vehicle titling tax.

Busch said he didn’t believe there were enough Democrats to pass a slots bill without a referendum. Republicans, who supported slot machine gambling when Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. was governor, have said they will not support a plan that is tied to tax increases.

‘‘If the Republicans want to put in their slots bill ... we would love to hear the bill,” said Busch (D-Dist. 30) of Annapolis.

A referendum complicates the mathematics of slot machine politics. Instead of a simple majority (24 votes in the Senate and 71 in the House), a referendum needs 29 votes in the Senate and 85 votes in the House.

Although the Senate has passed slots measures in the past, none have been with a 29-vote majority, Miller said.