Sunday’s column:
FRANKFORT — Slots Bill completed the first half of the Legislative Derby Friday, albeit at a very slow 3:28:36 pace.
That’s 3 hours, 28 minutes and 36 seconds from the time debate began until the voting machine locked in the final 52-45 tally. It’s been a while since I’ve witnessed (endured?) a debate of that length — if ever.
Now, Ol’ Slots trots down to the west end of the Capitol’s third floor, where Senate President David Williams awaits with a rival pony — a tax-and-spend bailout for a racing industry that hasn’t asked for one and, indeed, doesn’t want one.
All this state’s signature industry has asked for or wants is the ability to compete on a level playing field with racino tracks in other states that use revenue from expanded gambling to enhance purses and breeding incentives and lure owners and trainers away from Kentucky. House Bill 2 would give them that ability. Williams’ plan would not.
At one point Friday, Williams proposed supplementing his bailout by adding a 10 percent tax on charitable gaming to the 10 percent tax on lottery sales and the tax on out-of-state wagering he previously suggested. That had me wondering if he was cracking a bit under pressure of knowing that his usual intimidation tactics were not paralyzing the House into inaction this time and that Slots Bill was headed his way.
One thing even his enemies credit Williams with is smarts. But proposing a tax that would bring members of booster clubs, certain church denominations, service organizations and charitable operations out in opposition by the tens of thousands has to be the dumbest political idea I’ve heard around the state Capitol in many years.
Surely, Williams knows some of his caucus members could not survive such a vote. The fact that he even raised the issue is an indication that he was desperately searching for a way to avoid dealing with Slots Bill.
Ultimately, the tax on charitable gaming was removed from Williams’ plan.
But another sign of Williams’ desperation in trying to find money for his bailout is the $7 million his plan would take from a health insurance fund for state workers. The bulk of that money, $6.5 million, would be loaned to Ellis Park in Henderson. Smaller loans would go to Thunder Ridge in Prestonsburg and the Red Mile in Lexington.
Oddly enough, Williams did not mention this particular detail in committee or on the floor of the Senate.
Slots Bill does not tax lottery sales, which almost certainly would reduce sales and, consequently, reduce funding for scholarships. Nor does Slots Bill rob state workers’ health insurance fund to loan money to racetracks. Its sole goal is to put Kentucky tracks in a competitive position with their counterparts in racino states.
Although its passage by the House Friday only gets it through the first half of the Legislative Derby, it was still a win of sorts for Gov. Steve Beshear, who campaigned on expanding gambling (admittedly, via constitutional amendment) but couldn’t get it to a House vote on his first try in 2008.
It also represented a win of sorts for House Speaker Greg Stumbo, who rose to that position in no small part because of the inability of a Democratic governor to have his top priority receive a floor vote in a Democratic-controlled House last year. Not only did Stumbo show Friday that he can deliver the vote for his party’s governor, he also proved once again that he is equal to the task of matching Williams’ legislative guile.
Word in the halls had it that, if the House passed the measure Friday, Williams would have the Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee vote to kill it Friday afternoon. That would end the issue before his caucus members went home for the weekend, where they might be expected to feel pressure from school superintendents and higher education officials interested in the $1.3 billion in construction that could be funded by Slots Bill.
Stumbo’s solution: Pass Slots Bill on Friday, but don’t send him to the Senate until Monday.
Williams still vows to euthanize the poor fellow then, but Slots Bill at least gets to live through the weekend.
Larry Dale Keeling, a columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader, has spent most of his 35-plus years in journalism reporting on or writing editorials and columns about Kentucky’s politics and political issues. He now brings his experience and expertise on those topics to the KyKurmudgeon blog.
Why would the Governor schedule and call a Special Session if he did not have the votes for a “slot bill”..Actually litigation if same passed would result in the nullification of this bill and any other business of this illegal special session.
Why illegal you aske??? Please read the Rose Case which declared the educational system unconstitutional as it was..The court there stated that a special session can only be called in the case of an emergency…Are any of the subjects on the docket an emergency??? NO!!!!!!!!
Why you ask??? Because these same subjects were considered at the regular session and not acted upon…What has changed since the last general session in January, 2009…Nothing therefore these topics can only be acted on in January,2010…But let the genius we send to Frankfort and Washington vote anyway as no one will oppose them..I would suggest that these geniuses be required to pay all of the expenses for this illegal “special session…”
The horse industry should be like any other business. If they can’t compete, get out of the business or file bankruptcy like the small business moms and pops have to do as well as business connected to the auto industy, the coal industry. If they get in trouble, all we hear is a re-training program for those who suffer from those lay-offs. Maybe we need a program to re-train the horse industry! I think the EPA and environmentalists should demand that the legislature pass a tax on the horse industry for producing manure in the field which drains into the streams and pollute them. They surely demand that of the coal industry when they think a stream is polluted because of them. You give Stumbo credit for getting 52 votes when his party is in control with over 60 votes. Some of those who voted for it was against it until he promised 700 million to schools and God knows what else he promised. Where did the money come from which built the schools thirty, forty, and fifty years ago? We didn’t have to have a lottery, KERA and slots to build them then. All this slot bill is for is for the business men in the horse industry to make more money.