Just a few days ago (week of Feb. 7), the Baltimore Sun ran a front page story detailing plans by a Baltimore city delegate to introduce a bill in the Maryland General Assembly that would put the issue of allowing slot machines to a statewide referendum.
 
 The point of this little exercise is to circumvent Gov. Parris Glendening, who has opposed slots throughout his tenure. If voters approve it in referendum, the Governor has no veto power. So we’ll get slots.
 
 The bad news is this bill will target four specific locations in the state at which slots will be allowed. One of the four locations? Western Maryland.
 
 The delegate backing this bill - Rawlings of Baltimore - is a crony of Cas Taylor. Mr. Taylor, by the way, thinks this bill is a swell idea, because this way Western Maryland can actually get slots before Mr. Glendening leaves office. Mr. Taylor is a big slots advocate, not to mention a fan of casinos. Just a few years ago, he was pushing for a casino in Allegany County to revive our economy.
 
 Can’t get a full blown casino? That’s ok. We’ll start with slots and go from there. It won’t matter if the people of Allegany County don’t want slots. Let’s face it - every voter in Allegany County could vote no to the slots referendum, and it would make no difference whatsoever. If the referendum passes in the Baltimore/Washington corridor, we’ll have slots. End of story.
 
 The slots bill is another little piece of Cas Taylor’s nefarious “vision” for our county, the vision that apparently consists of really cool stuff like casinos, horse tracks, amphitheaters - and a chronically underemployed population.
 
 Don’t like that vision? That’s ok. Mr. Taylor isn’t particularly interested in what the people of Allegany County think. Anyone hear about Mr. Taylor holding meetings throughout the county to gauge public support of his plan to put slot machines here? No? Maybe that’s because THERE WEREN'T ANY MEETINGS.
 
 Mr. Taylor is forever yapping about the big picture, the vision, the long term plan, but he has never - to our knowledge - shared just what that plan or vision is. And he never asks the public for input on what sort of community we would like to be. We just get little pieces of his master plan when he sees fit. Of course, since 80% of the people in Allegany County have at least two jobs (or work in another county altogether), who really has time to think about planning for our future?
 
 You can see why he doesn’t share more with us. He doesn’t want us to worry about things like decent jobs with decent wages, health care plans, pensions, etc. We just need to keep toiling away in poverty, and he’ll take care of everything.
 
 So now there is a bill in the General Assembly that will put the issue of slots in Western Maryland and three other locations around the state to a statewide referendum. One might wonder why the entire state gets to vote on whether we have slot machines, but we suspect Mr. Taylor knows Allegany County, if asked to decide for itself, would vote the idea down. We think that’s why this bill is specific about the slot locations, as opposed to just asking the state’s electorate to approve slots in the state in general.
 
 We really like the way this guy does business. Rocky Gap, his amphitheater, slots, the horse track - all done with little to no input from us, the people who live here and who he is SUPPOSED to represent.
 
 Maybe we should start calling him Baby Doc. Baby Doc Taylor. He does have a lot in common with Third World despots. And the community he has created has more in common with the Third World than many of us would like to think.