BEING AN outlier is fine if it confers benefits. In Maryland’s case, the legislature’s unique budgetary impotence, and the state’s increasingly lonely ban on sports betting, are net minuses.
Two ballot questions this November aim to put the Old Line State in line with other states. That is a major part of the argument for both of them, but not the only part. Marylanders should vote yes on Questions 1 and 2, both of which, if approved, could redound to the benefit of taxpayers.
Question 1 would grant state lawmakers the same budgetary powers enjoyed by their counterparts elsewhere — namely, to shift and target spending priorities. That would end a system, devised in 1916 by reformers who imagined governors were nobly above the partisan fray while legislators were irredeemable spendthrifts. Today, Maryland is the only state in which lawmakers are powerless to transfer funds or add items to the governor’s annual budget, though they may cut money from one program and plead that it be moved elsewhere.
Question 2, if approved, would legalize sports betting, already legal in 22 states, including all those bordering Maryland as well as D.C. The regulatory details remain to be worked out in legislation, but the contours are known: The state would license casinos, some racetracks, its fairgrounds and other locations (such as the Washington football team’s stadium) to operate betting venues along with online (largely mobile) platforms. Annual tax revenue, which would be earmarked for public K-12 education, is estimated at $20 million to $40 million — a useful bump at a time when the pandemic has depleted taxes from casino gambling.
