FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) – A proposed ballot measure aimed at letting Kentucky voters decide whether to legalize casino gambling hasn’t garnered enough support to gain state Senate passage, a key supporter said Monday night.
Senate Majority Caucus Chairman Dan Seum acknowledged he hasn’t lined up sufficient support after emerging from a closed-door meeting of fellow Senate Republicans to discuss the hot-button issue.
Seum, a Louisville Republican, said he wasn’t giving up on his proposed constitutional amendment, with more than half of this year’s 60-day General Assembly session still left.
“At this point in time, I have no plans of putting it on the (Senate) floor, obviously, until I have the necessary votes to pass a constitutional amendment,” Seum told reporters.
Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer said the “sentiment is not there” right now to pass it in the Senate.
As a proposed change to the state Constitution, the measure would need at least 23 supporting votes in the 38-member chamber. Thayer declined to say how many votes were still needed.
The measure would go on this fall’s ballot if it cleared the Legislature.
Proposals seeking to legalize casinos have been introduced in the GOP-led Senate and Democratic-run House. Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear campaigned in support of expanded gambling as a revenue producer.
“If the governor wants it badly enough, he ought to go to the members of his own party in the chamber that they control and try to push the bill,” Thayer said.
Beshear spokeswoman Kerri Richardson declined comment Monday night.
House Speaker Pro Tem Larry Clark, D-Louisville, has introduced two gambling proposals.
One measure is a proposed constitutional amendment that would let Kentucky voters decide in the fall election whether they want to make casinos legal. A companion bill specifies how many casinos would be allowed, how the industry would be regulated and how the state’s share of revenue would be distributed.
Clark’s companion bill would allow up to eight casinos statewide, including five run by racetracks.
Clark has said the state would eventually take in an estimated $286 million in yearly casino-related tax revenues. Half the amount under his proposal would go to education – spanning preschools to universities.
Licensing fees granted to casino operators would generate at least $50 million more for the state for each casino at the outset.
Seum’s proposed constitutional amendment would allow up to seven casinos statewide.
Under his proposal, a proposed Equine Excellence Fund would receive 10 percent of gross gaming revenues to boost Kentucky’s horse racing industry through higher purses and breeders’ incentives.
Other state gaming revenues would go for job creation, education, human services, health care, veterans’ bonuses, local governments and public safety.
Seum sent a memo to fellow lawmakers last week touting the revenue potential from expanded gambling.
“The revenue created by expanded gambling would provide much needed relief from the seven consecutive years of budget cuts that the state has experienced, which has resulted in less funding for schools, higher tuition at universities and community colleges and cuts to health and human services,” he said.
Beshear has cut about $1.6 billion from the state budget since taking office in 2007, due to sluggish state revenues caused by the recession. He recommended another $98.6 million in spending cuts in the two-year budget proposal he recently submitted to lawmakers. The cuts would free up more money for education.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press.
