A task force appointed by Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon issued a report last month promoting full-scale casinos as one of the best ways to reduce the city’s property tax, which is the highest in the state.

The study calls for full-blown casinos—tables and slots, not the slot-only casinos being promoted by  Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, who is Baltimore’s former mayor—with revenue dedicated to lowering the property tax.

Dixon convened a group of 26 business and civic community leaders to study ways to reduce the property tax. In its report, the panel said casinos could knock 17 cents off the property tax rate as well as bringing in additional tourists, presumably to the city’s Inner Harbor area.

Jody Landers III, executive vice president of the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors and co-chairman of the task force, defended the proposal for full-scale casino gaming in an interview with the Associated Press. “We really felt in the overall scheme of things from the city’s perspective that full casino gambling would be much better for the city,” he said. “The city needs to have a strategy, and part of that strategy is to apply part of the gains that would come from either casino gambling or slots to meaningful property tax reduction.”

Some state officials disagree. A spokeswoman for state Comptroller Peter Franchot, who has been a persistent opponent of any legalization of slots in Maryland, gave the standard anti-gaming argument concerning the social costs of gambling in a statement.

“Slots and casinos are the wrong direction for Baltimore, and the wrong direction for Maryland,” the spokeswoman said. “Any revenue that may be generated by this predatory industry will be more than offset by increases in crime, addiction and the destruction of entire communities.”

Landers added that full casino gambling is actually a better idea than the slot casinos that will be voted upon in the November general election. “Full casino gambling draws on a population that has a wider spectrum of income levels,” he said. “Slots tend to draw more low- to moderate-income levels.”

Dixon said she will get feedback from the public on the proposal before examining all of Baltimore’s options.

By Casino Connection Staff

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