BUT, who’s fault is it that the people in the IMPACTED DISTRICTS did not care enough in November 2008 to read and understand a very clearly worded ballot? A first grader can take a ruler and lay it on a map to see where the boundaries lay? Legally, they could have lost their homes if the State/County wanted to take them and seize them by eminent domain. Granted, not likely.

The issue is that everyone assumed that Laurel was the ONLY place for them (and to be honest it is probably the right place for them) and voted NIMBY. That was naive and stupid. Period. In PA, the Blue Rout (I-476) was partially completed from King of Prussia to Conshohocken. The final routing was up in the air for literally 30 years. The state was dickering with three distinct routes. Finally, the blue route (the other two were yellow and green–trivia for the night) was chosen and boy did the people who had bought homes in the area pitch a fit. But you know what? The possibility existed for years. If they chose to ignore the possibility, is that the fault of the state?

Now that they realize it was naive and stupid, they are doing what they can to overturn what they themselves voted in favor. This is voter’s remorse. Pure and simple. My beef is not with slots or even the location. My beef is that we voted them in and the Council screwed around and did nothing. And now when the decision (as bizarre as it was) comes down, all of a sudden some people claim to say “oh wait, that was not what we (or any of the other voters) meant when we said you could build a slot parlor in this area–we meant in another area.

I think it is not that people have a fundamental problem with slots in AA County, I think that it is probably a large majority of the people who voted in favor of slots were under the impression that it was the Laurel location, and not Arundel Mills Mall. I think it is the process and not the execution people take issue with. There are a number of reasons the Laurel facility is more appealing then the mall location, not of the least is that the success, and future, of Laurel race track depends on the addition of slots. I have no problem with slots fundamentally, and most of the anti-slots argument fall into my “it is not the governments job to protect you from yourself” category. Where I take issue is that the council did not have a spine and left this decision to the whim of the County Executive. I think if you were able to poll many AA voters that supported the slot referendum, despite the verbiage, this was not the plan they voted in support of. Just my two cents.

Devin