Ky State Senator Damon Thayer has made good on his promise to file a bill seeking to put expanded gambling on the ballot for consideration by the voters, perhaps as early as next November. So now the question is, what's Damon up to?
First, his long standing relationship with the horse industry might be argued as his motivation, since the biggest proponents of slot machines in the Commonwealth are the race tracks. But according to the Lexington Herald Leader, they are opposed to Thayer's bill.
[T]he bill has gotten a cold reception from the horse industry, which views it as hostile because it would not guarantee racetracks got expanded gambling. Instead, the racetracks would have to compete openly against other potential operators for a slots facility in their counties.
Also, the bill would require local voter approval, which would give opponents two chances to block slots.
Horsemen have characterized Thayer's bill as a political move that offers too little too late. [Lexington Herald Leader]
Second, Thayer represents voters in Owen, Grant, Scott and southern Kenton counties. There are no race tracks in his district. Neither is his district comprised of folks likely to be big proponents of gambling of any sort.
Of course Thayer has said that this bill is designed to get the issue on the table instead of allowing it to fester in Frankfort and distract government from the serious task of dealing with budget problems in the upcoming session.
But others in the know have said that Governor Beshear has shown "zero" interest in dealing responsibly with the root cause of Kentucky's fiscal issues and has instead placed all of his chips on the casino solution.
For example, some republicans contend that if the government would eliminate the prevailing wage law we would see considerable savings in tax dollars spent on government projects. In addition, if Kentucky became a "right to work" state we would be much more competitive when it came to attracting new industry to the Commonwealth which in turn would provide jobs and revenue now being lost to other states in much more palatable industries than the cry that we are losing out to neighboring casinos.
Instead of pre-filing bills to deal with these issues and then taking the lead to convince the voters that we can fix our problems without trying to balance the budget on the backs of the poor, Thayer could have shown more boldness.
So one has to wonder, what is Damon Thayer up to? Who is behind his bill and are the track owners right that this is just some sort of political game playing?
If Thayer wanted to remove gambling as an obstacle to getting more serious business done in Frankfort, ("We must move forward so that the Governor can focus on working with the General Assembly in a bipartisan manner to address the serious public policy issues facing Kentucky") his decision to pre-file a casino bill which is likely to become the focal point in the upcoming session needs a little more explaining than that which he has given it thus far.
Comments