Former Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith has joined the list of current and former elected officials to throw support behind the referendum to expand gambling in Maryland.
Smith appears in the latest (but it's hard to keep track) commercial in favor of Question 7.
Smith can be seen standing in what appears to be an elementary school hallway with a primary color-painted mural backdrop endorsing the effort and asking for voters to join him in supporting the issue.
"Marylanders can keep spending millions at casinos in other states or we can generate millions for our schools right here," Smith says in the commercial. [See the commercial here.]
Opponents argue that the law, if passed, would not result in additional spending on education.
Other elected officials to appear in commercials for the referendum include Prince George's County Executive Rushern Baker and Gov. Martin O'Malley.
Smith was not immediately available to comment for this post.
It is what the law says. Not one EXTRA dime is going to school funding, only the source will change unless they change this law like they did the entire slot law AFTER the voters had their say.
It's a bad deal all the way around for the citizens of Maryland. If Jim Smith told me the sky was blue, I would check out the window.
That just doesn't sound right. If you believe that, I will be glad to give you a good price on a bridge over the East River from Manhattan to Brooklyn. Also, we have no idea what effect an additional casino in P.G. County will have on the other casinos. The one in Perryville has asked to turn slot machines back to the state because it says it has lost business to Maryland Live in Anne Arundel County. The casino in Perryville was supposed to capture the business going to Delaware. Question 7 is simply a bad deal for Maryland. I will be voting NO.
If the legislature wants let us vote on table games without National Harbor and without lowering the state's take from gambling, it can let us do so. But meanwhile, vote NO on Question 7..
We have no reason to believe that the extra revenue from expanded gambling, if there actually is any extra revenue, will go to education. Vote NO on Question 7.
Gambling is a scourge that preys on those who can least afford it. It is a sad day when our elected representatives sell this to us at the expense of more pain and suffering for those who lack the judgement to know that gambling is a losing proposition and dead end.
All the other account name nics with the pumped up blogs You better post, better post, outpost all my names All the other posts with the trumped up stats You better blog, better blog, faster than I can type No pouting.