Slot Machine Revenues Going to Education? 

The Maryland horse tracks are upset by recent legislation that would take part of their revenue and put it towards education. When the law was written, it said that seven percent of the slot machine revenues would go into an account, and from that account the winners would be paid. This would enable the tracks to pay out much larger purses to their winners, and thus bring in more business. Needless to say they don’t want anything to happen to this fund. 

However, a new bill threatens to take all of that money and put it toward a school construction fund instead. Delegate Luiz Simmons, a Montgomery County Delegate, says that the money should go towards education because they richly deserve it. He said that he didn’t hold any “ill will toward horse racing” but that he thought that the state should not “be giving a handout to the horses when most other groups are scouring in the weeds for pennies.” 

Some say that Simmons is only taking this legislation forward because he does not have one of the tracks in his district so he can afford to throw that money away. Simmons supporters wanted to know when building up the education in their state was considered “throwing away money.”  They said that the state has long needed to fix the schools that are in existence and build new ones – but that the funding for these projects has been delayed due to budget deficits. 

The problem is that with this fund they need slot machines to bring in the money and the state is having a tough enough time getting that to happen. They say that at this rate they are looking at a very long time before it reaches it desired $100 million a year, because that is based on the full amount of slot machines being functional.