House approves slot machines bill

AUGUSTA – A plan to introduce slot machines to Bangor Raceway won initial approval in the House on Monday, surviving a flurry of floor amendments on its way to the Senate.

Lawmakers, most of whom hailed from southern Maine, had lined up to offer changes to the bill, LD 1820, designed to impose strict controls on the fledgling slots industry authorized by voters in November.

But it wasn’t any of the eight proposed amendments – all of which met decisive defeats – that had lawmakers and lobbyists talking in the halls of the State House.

It was the change nobody proposed.

Rep. Pat Blanchette, D-Bangor, had planned on offering a floor amendment on behalf of Penn National Gaming, the company poised to operate the slots at the Bangor harness racing track.

The amendment would have repealed a hefty state tax, expected to net the state upwards of $8 million a year on top of the 39 percent of slots revenue it already stands to receive. The amendment would replace the tax with a one-time, $3 million licensing fee if the state agrees to adopt a less costly – but equally effective, Penn argued – central computer system to control the slots.

Blanchette pulled her support for the change just hours before Monday’s afternoon session, accusing Penn officials of using her to engineer the bill’s demise by forcing a veto from Gov. John Baldacci, who reportedly objects to the changes in the central control system.

A veto, Blanchette explained, would allow the citizen-initiated bill, which gives Penn a bigger share of the slots revenue, to take effect.

“I was lied to and I don’t like being used as a pingpong ball,” she said after the House adjourned. “It was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

Penn officials denied trying to mastermind the bill’s defeat, contending the changes were needed to make the $30 million Bangor project profitable. Without the changes, Penn officials issued a curt prediction.

“No project,” said Chris Howard, an attorney representing Penn. The company might try to amend the bill in the Senate, he said.

Penn’s ultimatum didn’t sit well with the often outspoken Blanchette.

“If they don’t, so be it,” she said of the possibility of Penn’s departure. “There are others out there.”

The apparent rift between Penn and at least one member of the city’s delegation punctuated the bill’s eventful trip through the House, which in a 122-18 vote, offered its initial approval.

But the endorsement didn’t come without attempts to change the bill. Those included an effort to send the matter back to voters, who one southern Maine lawmaker said were duped into allowing slots into the state.

“They’ve changed their minds,” said Rep. Kevin Glynn, R-South Portland, referring to local votes held after November’s statewide referendum in which three southern Maine towns soundly defeated slots there. “I’m not a betting man, but I bet … we’d see racino repealed.”

The suggestion, which received little support in the House, prompted a swift response from Rep. Joseph Clark, D-Millinocket.

“Everything we do here doesn’t need to be sent back to voters,” said Clark, noting strong support for the racino in northern Maine, particularly Bangor. “If you don’t like being their voice in Augusta, why did you run?”

Other amendments offered but rejected Monday sought to divert some of the slots revenue to property tax relief and Maine’s Indian tribes.