March 31, 2001
 
 
 The Maryland Racing Commission gave preliminary approval yesterday to a bid by William Rickman Jr. to build a horse track in Western Maryland, acting after the Maryland Jockey Club agreed to drop its opposition.
 
 Rickman, owner of Delaware Park and Ocean Downs, presented the commission with a $20 million line of credit for Allegany Racing Association, the entity composed of Rickman and his father, William Rickman, that proposes to construct the track in eastern Allegany County.
 
 Representatives of the Maryland Jockey Club stopped fighting the proposal after Rickman secured the line of credit from the Wilmington Trust Co. in Delaware.
 
 Although commissioners voted 6-0 in support of the track, they did not issue a license to construct and operate it. They merely gave Rickman the go-ahead to prepare a design, construction schedule and operating plan within the next six months. Later, the commission will hold a license hearing.
 
 However, commissioners signaled their priorities by agreeing unanimously that Rickman's proposal met the preliminary standards of being financially viable and in the best interests of Maryland racing.
 
 The decision followed a day of back-room intrigue as Rickman and his representatives negotiated with officials of the Pimlico-Laurel Park-Rosecroft Raceway alliance over matters of economic viability.
 
 Even Rickman has said that a track in Western Maryland cannot be profitable without a supporting network of off-track-betting parlors. At the same time, he has repeatedly said that money is no object.
 
 He has said that he and his father will spend whatever it takes to construct the track (estimated at $13.5 million) and then absorb any losses.
 
 His securing the $20 million line of credit erased concerns about financial viability.
 
 "We've never opposed a racetrack in Western Maryland," said Joe De Francis, president and CEO of the Maryland Jockey Club. "Our issue has always been, if Mr. Rickman wants to build a racetrack and own the racetrack and operate the racetrack, then he should pay for it with his own money. He's got plenty of that."
 
 Rickman has made millions with slot machines at Delaware Park. De Francis has lobbied unsuccessfully for slots at Pimlico and Laurel.
 
 De Francis said his opposition to Rickman's plan for the Western Maryland track centered on Rickman's related intention to build OTBs around the state. De Francis said he did not want Rickman's OTBs siphoning off MJC business to subsidize an unprofitable track in Allegany County.
 
 "This is a good result," De Francis said of Rickman's securing the line of credit. "It gives Mr. Rickman the ability to move forward ... and gives us time to continue discussions to work out a mutually acceptable OTB solution."
 
 De Francis said that he and Rickman have tried to agree upon locations and even discussed joint ventures for new OTBs.
 
 "We'd like to proceed on a cooperative basis as opposed to a competitive basis," De Francis said.
 
 Before voting in support of the track, commissioners heard impassioned testimony from Allegany County residents who questioned why a track should scar their community so that OTBs elsewhere could turn a profit.
 
 "Put yourself in their place," said David Brigham, spokesman for Citizens Against the Racecourse. "Why does their community need to be turned upside down so that other things can be done to make money?"
 
 
 
 
 
 Copyright (c) 2001, The Baltimore Sun
 

For the umpteenth time, another sanctimonious post in this finger wagging web site (this one by Matt Shipway) tries to infer that the Rocky Gap Lodge was built with tax money.
 
 For the umpteenth time, the Lodge was built with private corporate funds that were raised from the bond marketplace. MEDCO is a quasi-private entity that funds economic development using the state's guarantee to obtain outside investment. You will likely be shocked to know that a major national corporation purchased the entire bond and regularly receives reports and walk throughs from local management on the Lodge's performance. The taxpayer did not build that building.
 
 Under current leadership, the financial performance of the property turned the corner to profitability roughly two years ago and is successfully servicing the bond. Planned reserves from the initial bond were used during the start-up year before current management arrived here.
 
 While it is soooo convenient to use the Rocky Gap project as the whipping boy for the lousy performance of the local school board over the past decade (not to mention your own political agenda), the reality of Rocky Gap is something you have never dared to consider. 60,000 room nights in the past year with growth already booked. Over 750,000 persons served per year in the Park for traditional recreation, making Rocky Gap the state's most heavily used public land. Cold hard facts that will never grace your web pages simply because they don't fit your conspiracy theory.
 
 Furthermore, you exhibit a basic misconception about the nature of state funding. If DNR includes a line item in their budget before the legislature, there is absolutely no mechanism in any commmittee or leadership forum that can arbitrarily pluck that project and apply it to education...or transportation...or public health....or any other state department. The only person who can direct such a transfer of priorities is the beloved "Education Governor", whose budget cannot be augmented by Legislative priorities from the floor or committees, only deleted. That's Maryland State Government 101. Did you skip class that day?
 
 Yes, local funding bills can be introduced by representatives. But no, it is not possible to reach into the departmental budgets delivered by the governor and rearrange the dollars to other department. Never has been possible. If you have a problem with the State's priorities between departments, you have a proble with the Governor. Before you scream at the local delegation, shouldn't one of you take ask Frances Ann's hubby why he doesn't do for us what he does for PG County?
 
 These facts are common knowledge among many of the thinking, reasonable people you are trying to reach. To ignore them repeatedly does nothing but decrease your credibility as a legitimate forum. For what its worth, every time you repeat the "urban legend" of Rocky Gap pork barrel and incorrectly refer to the state's financing mechanisms you look a little more silly in the eyes of folks just as bright and involved as you consider yourselves to be.
 
 Believe anything you want but get the basic facts right, guys.
 
 DW
 Cumberland
 03/28/01

Originally published March 18, 2001
 
 
 WHAT GOOD does it do to put your resources into Maryland's colleges and universities when the state's public schools are on the brink of hard times?
 
 That's one of the contradictions in Gov. Parris N. Glendening's recent decision to pour vast sums of tax dollars into the University System of Maryland and other public colleges.
 
 While he's focused on higher-ed improvements, K-12 is in trouble.
 
 The governor's generosity for his old stomping ground (where he could return in 2003 as chancellor) is stunning. USM got a $112 million operating fund boost on top of $162 million in construction projects.
 
 In all, higher education raked in $430 million of capital funds. Operating funds rose by 14 percent. It's a banner budget for state colleges.
 
 But not for public elementary and secondary schools. They got precious little.
 
 By law, the governor is required to give K-12 public schools more money each year under various formulas. But in the area of discretionary spending, the Glendening budget calls for just $19 million in new money for early childhood learning. And not much else.
 
 No extra dollars -- beyond what the law calls for -- to help schools overwhelmed by special-needs students. No extra cash for rural schools in desperate straits. Little real new money for the still-struggling city school system.
 
 And yet, local school expenses are growing so rapidly that city and county governments can't pay for it.
 
 Take special education. Costs have soared to well over $1 billion. Some 112,000 students have special needs, a 10-year growth of 21 percent.
 
 Yet the state's share of special-education expenses has dropped over that period, from 21 percent to just 15 percent.
 
 The counties and Baltimore City are left scrambling for local funds to pay for these added education programs required by federal law.
 
 The same thing has happened in bus services for special-needs kids. In 1984, Maryland paid 95 percent of those costs. Now it pays 36 percent. Meanwhile, local transportation expenses have soared 180 percent between 1981 and 1998.
 
 To pay those bills, 10 counties raised income or property tax rates last year and five more counties substantially increased fees or other taxes.
 
 Some counties are just about tapped out.
 
 They've hit the limit on raising the local piggyback income tax; higher property taxes have led to tax revolts, and tax caps, in five counties.
 
 And yet the education pressures keep building for local governments.
 
 Mr. Glendening has been generous to one segment of the local school systems -- the teachers' union.
 
 His teacher pay-incentive program will cost the state $85 million this coming year. But to qualify for that money, counties must put up four times that amount. A growing number of them can't afford to do that.
 
 Efforts to give local schools the extra operating funds they badly need have fallen on deaf ears. A blue-ribbon panel formed to re-write the state's school-aid formula two years ago has been ignored by the governor. This year, it recommended a $132 million stopgap package.
 
 The governor included not a cent of this request in his budget.
 
 The state school board's recommendation for all-day kindergarten and other additional aid was also ignored by Mr. Glendening.
 
 Instead, he dumped a quarter-billion-dollars of state money into local school construction. What he didn't say is that Baltimore and the counties must put up twice that amount -- $500 million -- as their share of these construction projects.
 
 Some impoverished counties don't have the resources.
 
 Besides, local educators' top priority is classroom improvement, not new buildings. The governor's budget barely speaks to that concern.
 
 Allegany County schools are in extremis, for instance. A school consolidation this year didn't save nearly enough to lift the Western Maryland system out of its deficit.
 
 The impoverished county government doesn't have the funds to turn things around. And Mr. Glendening's budget offers no relief.
 
 Given the governor's unwillingness to confront the emerging crisis in K-12 education, counties may resort to court action.
 
 The city was pressured by Annapolis politicians, including the governor, to abandon its lawsuit, but private groups aren't giving up.
 
 And for good reason.
 
 The state constitution is crystal clear that Maryland government "shall by law establish throughout the state a thorough and efficient system of free public schools." The state's not living up to that mandate.
 
 This ought to be the top Annapolis priority, not fancy new college buildings and higher-education initiatives.
 
 Maryland's much-vaunted K-12 school reforms aren't going to succeed if public schools can't get the full attention of this state's governor and legislature.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Barry Rascovar is deputy editorial page editor.
 
 Copyright (c) 2001, The Baltimore Sun
 

April 12, 2001
 
 THE INDUSTRY that can't get its act together - horse racing - has done it again. With a giant assist from the speaker of the House of Delegates, Maryland racing is digging itself a deep hole.
 
 Gone is $10 million in state funds to bolster track purses and make Maryland more competitive with slots-rich tracks in Delaware.
 
 Rosecroft, the harness-racing oval in southern Prince George's County, could be on the critical list as a result. Pimlico and Laurel will take a big hit as more jockeys, trainers and owners shift their operations to Delaware Park.
 
 And the elaborate track improvements planned for Pimlico (once bonds are sold) could be thrown into doubt if the loss of purse money leads to a further wagering decline.
 
 The clear winner is William Rickman Jr., owner of the Delaware Park slots-racing track and the small Ocean Downs harness track on the Eastern Shore. His maneuvering has destabilized Maryland's racing scene, given his Delaware track a huge advantage and set the stage for another possible bid for Rosecroft - and perhaps, at a later date, Pimlico.
 
 Ironically, those who put the $10 million purse supplement in jeopardy were the very ones with the most to lose by its disappearance - the horsemen and breeders. They played a high-stakes game with Mr. Rickman and House Speaker Casper R. Taylor to gain an advantage on other racing issues. Sadly, their machinations blew up on them.
 
 That $10 million purse supplement directly aids jockeys, trainers and horse owners. Not a penny of these state funds winds up in the hands of track operators.
 
 The supplement money is huge for Rosecroft. One-quarter of its daily purses come from the state. When that disappears this summer, Rosecroft will be crippled. The two Delaware harness tracks, thanks to that mother lode of cash flowing from slot machines, already offer purses that nearly triple Rosecroft's nightly offering.
 
 The person who blocked passage of the purse-supplement renewal was House Speaker Taylor. To various delegations, he gave various reasons. The bill had had no trouble passing the Senate, 41-6, and had strong support in the Ways and Means Committee.
 
 Previously, Mr. Taylor went out of his way to help Mr. Rickman's efforts to bring racing to the speaker's home county of Allegany in Western Maryland.
 
 This latest move greatly enhances Mr. Rickman's position, both in Delaware and Maryland.
 
 Another key Rickman cheerleader, House Majority Leader John A. Hurson of Montgomery County, worked for passage of bills that would have helped Mr. Rickman's cause and weakened the position of the state's current thoroughbred track owners.
 
 Gov. Parris N. Glendening, meanwhile, remained on the sidelines. Previously he had tried to undercut the Laurel-Pimlico ownership. But this time he was a neutral observer, though aides said he didn't oppose renewal of the $10 million purse supplement from extra lottery funds.
 
 Given the bleak fiscal outlook for Maryland government, it would be extraordinary if this money were restored next session. And by 2003, there might not be much left of the racing industry.
 
 Even a move to legalize slots at the tracks may come too late.
 
 Or by that time, Mr. Rickman, backed by the tens of millions in profits he's making on Delaware Park's slots, could be King of the Hill in Maryland, too.
 
 More likely, there could be new, out-of-state ownership at Rosecroft and another, deep-pocket co-owner of Pimlico and Laurel. These would be desperation moves, though.
 
 A $1 billion local industry is on the brink. The greatest pain will be felt by local jockeys, trainers and backstretch employees.
 
 This session's racing debacle could have been avoided had feuding groups declared a truce. But the thoroughbred horsemen seem obsessed with gaining the upper hand over their harness-racing brethren. They also seem intent on dictating terms to the Pimlico-Laurel owners.
 
 They have effectively blocked expansion of off-track betting outlets, blocked efforts to turn thoroughbred racing into a twilight event in summertime and blocked efforts to experiment with a brief summer meet in Virginia.
 
 Track owners, meanwhile, have disappointed legislators with their lack of business acumen. They have failed to show quick results on track improvements and OTB expansion.
 
 Mr. Rickman, for his part, is using Speaker Taylor to destabilize the racing scene even further with construction of a Western Maryland race track, plus OTB outlets, that will drain revenue from Laurel, Pimlico and Rosecroft. And a weak racing commission remains incapable of unifying the industry.
 
 It's a mess that Speaker Taylor made immeasurably worse by effectively killing the $10 million purse supplement. Even if the industry now sees the light and views this disaster as a wake-up call, it may be too late.
 
 
 
 Barry Rascovar is deputy editorial page editor.
 
 
 
 
 
 Copyright (c) 2001, The Baltimore Sun
 

March 26, 2001
 
 Now this is scary. When the new Census numbers came out last week, our former director of Economic Development for Allegany County - John Kirby - announced in grandiose fashion that the loss we saw in our Census of a mere 16 people “breaks a 50-year cycle of decline.”
 
 In conjunction with Mr. Kirby, our newspaper trumpeted the same sentiment, proclaiming in a banner headline that “Population decline may be over.”
 
 This in the face of the fact that the only reason our numbers did not reflect a loss of 3,000 (or more) is because the federal and state prisons opened in the last decade, importing 3,000 or so prisoners who were counted in our Census total.
 
 The reality is we lost a minimum of 3,000 taxpayers, who were replaced with a population that brings nothing to our community. Maybe Mr. Kirby likes them because they don’t need jobs.
 
 Losing 3,000 people is not good news. It’s more of the same. We should be thankful we didn’t lose more - according to Census estimates, we were slated to lose about 5% of our population, without counting the prison imports.
 
 So it wasn’t as bad as the Census Statistical Information staff originally thought, but it wasn’t good, either. According to Census stats, from 1990 to 1999 our death rate exceeded our birth rated by 1,488 people, we saw an outward migration of 2,934 people. The prison population saved us from a total Census count of around 71,000, instead of the 74,930 with which we ended up.
 
 Obviously, our decline continues. That’s obvious to us and most people who live here. The only ones incapable of figuring this out - or who don’t want us to figure this out - are those who apparently have a vested interest in pulling the wool over our eyes.
 
 Sorry, boys, but we’re not buying it. So stop acting like people who don’t work, don’t pay taxes, and don’t contribute to our community make up for the thousands of taxpayers who threw in the towel and went to live somewhere else.