Panel abruptly ends work on racino legislation

AUGUSTA – Deep divisions among lawmakers over the prospect of slot machines at Scarborough Downs prompted an abrupt end to a Wednesday session of the Legislature’s Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee.

“There are philosophical differences,” said committee member Rep. Randy Hotham, R-Dixfield, shortly after the session’s early and unexpected Wednesday afternoon adjournment. “I just see this going in a bad direction.”

The impasse comes in the midst of the committee’s closely watched work on a Baldacci administration bill designed to put strict regulations on the state’s fledgling slot machine industry.

“We weren’t going to get anywhere in there today,” Sen. Ken Gagnon, a Waterville Democrat and Senate chairman of the committee, later said of his decision to end work on the bill Wednesday and cancel another session scheduled for today.

The governor’s bill, LD 1820, would replace a law approved by voters in November that allowed slot machines at the state’s two harness racing tracks in Bangor and Scarborough.

Bangor, however, was the only community to gain the needed local approvals before a Dec. 31, 2003, deadline set by the referendum bill.

Since then, Scarborough Downs has lobbied the committee to extend the deadline and essentially give the southern Maine track a second chance at finding a willing host community for its racetrack casino.

On Wednesday, the committee discussed leaving the door open for a southern racino, but would only consider such a proposal after a two-year period during which only the Bangor track would operate.

Even with the proposed delay, the prospect ran into stiff opposition from gambling opponents such as Rep. Kevin Glynn, R-South Portland.

“There are a lot of people who don’t want this opened up,” Glynn said, referencing the bitter debates in southern Maine over an Indian casino and slots at Scarborough Downs. “It will just cause more unrest and more bad feelings.”

The plan also found an enemy in Hotham who said he, like several others on the committee, wanted to keep the original legislation approved by voters as intact as possible.

“Voters passed the bill, and I’m not even going to entertain discussion that they didn’t know what they were doing,” said Hotham, although adding that he would support revisions to the original law that focused on regulation of the new industry and on adequately reimbursing the state for its regulatory costs.

But Gagnon said expectations that the committee could simply stop future attempts at creating a southern Maine racino were unrealistic. Addressing the issue as part of Baldacci’s bill, he said, could give the Legislature more control over when and if such a facility could open.

“People are under the false impression that if we kill the southern Maine track right now, it will never come up again,” Gagnon said. “That’s simply not the case and people just needed time to think about the options.”

Gagnon said the committee could resume its work as early as next week.