ANNAPOLIS – Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley on Tuesday said two special legislative sessions may be needed to pass a budget deal and resolve gambling legislation.
O’Malley met Tuesday morning with Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., D-Calvert and Prince George’s, House Speaker Michael Busch, D-Anne Arundel, and Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown to discuss calling a special session to pass a revenue package that would complete the budget lawmakers failed to pass during the 90-day legislature.
The governor said his first priority is passing a budget before a May 23 Board of Public Works meeting, at which O’Malley must submit roughly $130 million in cuts to state spending — a deal struck in the eleventh hour of the General Assembly.
But gambling deserves a chance to come to a vote before the House and Senate — perhaps in August, O’Malley said, as long as the budget and legislation that would expand gambling are separated in legislative debates.
“What we probably need to do is take a deep breath, resolve the budget issue, then have our discussions and try to seek consensus and resolve the issues affecting the future of gaming at a later point in the summer,” he said.
Miller has tried to pass a bill that would expand gambling through adding table games such as blackjack and roulette and a sixth state casino, to be in Prince George’s County. The measure would go to voters on the November ballot.
O’Malley’s idea for a second session in the fall would allow the gambling question to be placed on the ballot in November 2012 — otherwise, casino supporters would have to wait until 2014 for a vote.
Busch and Miller said they would meet with lawmakers soon to take the legislature’s temperature on the budget. The governor hopes to meet with more budget conferees by the end of the week, he said.
“Right now the important thing, for me anyway as the speaker of the House, is to bring back leadership and find out basically where their sentiments lie,” Busch said.
Lawmakers must strike a deal soon or risk allowing more that $500 million in “doomsday” budget cuts to occur July 1.
“We’re under the clock right now,” O’Malley said. “Either we resolve the budget in the next couple of weeks, or those cuts are going to go into effect.”
