Gambling bill headed to full House

By Patrick Crowley • pcrowley@nky.com • June 18, 2009

FRANKFORT -- The Kentucky House is set to cast a long-awaited and contentious vote Friday on legalizing casino gambling in the state.

The move to legalize casino gambling at race tracks took a major step forward Thursday morning with a vote from the House budget committee.

Following a two-hour debate and by a vote of 19 to 9, the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee passed a bill allowing Kentucky’s race tracks, including Turfway Park in Florence, to operate video slot casinos.

Gambling has been debated in Frankfort for more than a decade. Gov. Steve Beshear called a special session to deal with it and other issues.

“We’re going to keep doing what we’ve been doing,” said Turfway Park President Bob Elliston. “We believe there is momentum in support of this bill, and I think (this) vote is a testament to that.” The measure, which includes a provision to spend $1.3 billion in gambling tax revenue on public school and higher education projects, now heads to the full House of Representatives.

Beshear and other supporters of the gambling bill have said the legislation is primarily necessary to provide a financial boost to Kentucky’s horse racing industry, which is suffering from competition from states that use gambling to enhance purses, breeder’s incentives and the equine industry.

Under provisions of the bill, the state’s tracks would pay initial licensing fees of more than $510 million and hundreds of millions more annually in taxes on gambling revenue. But many lawmakers are now being pitched to vote for the bill as an economic stimulus package for education.

Rep. Arnold Simpson, D-Covington. Voted for the bill, but only to put it before the full House. He said he will not vote for it on the House floor.

“The time has come to send this bill to the floor,” Simpson said.

Simpson does not favor giving race tracks the exclusive rights to operate casinos and believes other communities, including Covington and other Ohio riverfront cities, should also be able to operate casinos.

Rep. Royce Adams, D-Dry Ridge, who represents what is considered a socially conservative district that covers Grant, Gallatin and Owen counties, voted in favor of the bill.

Adams said he paid for a poll that showed the issue was favored by 13 percent more of his constituents than were opposed to it.  “There are more people in my district that support it than people who don’t,” Adams said. “That might be hard for some people to believe, but I used my own money, did a poll and it came back more for it than against it.  “I was surprised, because my phone calls are almost even,” he said. “But the poll is what convinced me.  House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, has linked the casino bill to a plan to spend $1.3 billion on public school and higher education projects.

Opponents of gambling have accused Stumbo of “vote buying”.

“This is just a foreshadowing of the way money will distort our political process once we admit casino gambling into this state,” said Martin Cothran, spokesman for Say No To Casinos, an anti-gambling group. ”This is democracy casino-style.”

The spending plan includes $5.7 million to help pay to replace a dilapidated elementary school operated by the Beechwood Independent School District in Fort Mitchell.  Beechwood Board of Education Chairman Mike Dammert said Thursday he is mobilizing an effort for supporters of the bill to call their legislators.

“This is our chance to get our school built,” Dammert said. “It has come time to pass this bill.”

Because gambling revenue will be used for education projects, Dammert said legislators who vote against the bill will be under scrutiny on Election Day.

“If this bill passes, when it comes time for elections, voters are going to remember who supported this bill and who didn’t,” he said.

But passage in the House is not certain. Several budget committee members said they voted for the bill in committee to keep it moving and put it before the full House.

Rep. Addia Wuchner, R-Burlington, said she plans to file an amendment Friday morning that would allow voters in the county where a casino would be located to vote on the issue. In the case of Turfway Park, that would be Boone County voters.

“I’ve talked to a lot of people and they want the chance to vote on this,” Wuchner said. “I think this is the fairest way to do it.”

In the Senate, President David Williams opposes the bill and has said he does not favor linking the casino bill to school spending. Williams met with several GOP House members privately on Thursday, trying to convince them to oppose the measure.

Under Stumbo’s plan Northern Kentucky would receive millions of dollars for higher education and public school construction and spending.

Northern Kentucky University would receive $48.5 million for the first phase of construction of its planned Health Innovations Center, which would offer instruction in health care related fields.

Gateway Community and Technical College would receive $1.8 million to purchase new equipment, Keene said.

Several communities – Fort Thomas, Grants Lick, Southgate, Silver Grove, Erlanger, Covington and others – would receive money to repair older buildings.

And every school district would receive some benefit from a proposed increase in per pupil spending from $100 per student to $125.  That affects all schools, not just those in need of building restorations, and conceivably could draw more lawmakers into favoring the bill.