2008 Woodie Awards
GAME ON
Gaming bill to bring work, play
Melanie McGee
Issue date: 4/5/07 Section: Front Page
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Pittsburg State students should see their part-time job prospects improve significantly in the next few years, after the Kansas Legislature approved expanded casino gaming last week. With the anticipated reopening of the Camptown Greyhound Park in Frontenac and the opening of a casino in either Crawford or Cherokee County, the entire area will see economic benefits of the bill, which is expected to be signed by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. The bill creates four gaming zones, where casinos may locate, in either Crawford or Cherokee counties, either Sedgwick or Sumner counties, Wyandotte and Ford counties. It also authorizes 2,800 slot machines to be distributed among racetracks in the state, including the Camptown Greyhound Park. "A lot of college students used to work at the dog track, and this will provide great employment for students," Sen. Jim Barone, D-Frontenac, said. He expects that Camptown will resume dog races in the near future. "I hope to have dogs running by the first of the year, and they could open the slots before the dogs start running," Barone added. The casino is not expected to open until 2010, and will provide even more jobs. Originally a simple bill to extend the life of the Kansas Lottery, Senate Bill 66 was amended to include the casino and slots package on the floor of the House. After receiving just one more vote than necessary and passing 64-58, the bill was nearly bogged down by procedural moves in the Senate on Wednesday. The Senate asked for a conference committee to be appointed, but when House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls, a gaming opponent, declined to appoint one, senators started trying other maneuvers. As gaming proponents were deciding on a course of action, a motion was made to simply concur to the House amendments. Had that motion failed, the entire gaming bill would have died. The motion to concur spurred a highly unusual filibuster, with gaming proponents yielding the floor only to other proponents. The filibuster provided proponents with the time to secure the 21 votes needed for passage. Barone was part of the filibuster, and was speaking around 10:30 p.m. when the last swing vote became a yes. "We were prepared to keep the filibuster going until nine the next morning," Barone said. He noted that gaming opponents continually enforced Senate rules, making the filibuster more challenging, since each senator was allowed to speak only twice on the bill. "When I yielded to Janis (Lee), D-Kensington, she had promised to go for three and a half hours on her first stint, and we still had Sen. (Donald) Betts and Sen. (Laura) Kelly who hadn't spoken at all, and Sen. (David) Wysong could speak one more time," Barone said. Supporters of the bill also included Reps. Bob Grant, D-Cherokee, and Julie Menghini, D-Pittsburg. "I'm not saying that gambling is right or wrong, but I've looked at how many jobs it opens up and how it helps the economy, with the dog track and the casino, and both (Crawford and Cherokee) counties will benefit," Grant said. "In the past, we have fought over where the money would go, and we needed to get the bill passed first. This time, we fought off over 50 amendments in the House. We finally had a clean gaming bill, and I think that's one of the reasons it passed." The bill designates revenues from the casinos and slot machines for reduction of state debt, state infrastructure improvements and reduction of local property taxes. Deferred maintenance at state universities falls into the category of infrastructure improvements, and so PSU may receive some of the funds for building repairs. "I will be very, very surprised and disappointed if we don't get a casino in Southeast Kansas," Barone said, noting that some parties are already interested in bidding for the casino. He hopes to have at least two bidders for each gaming zone. Revenues from casinos and slot machines at racetracks will be distributed among the state, the Problem Gaming and Addictions Fund, the city and county where the casino or track is located and in two of the gaming zones, the non-host county. If a casino locates in Cherokee County, Crawford County will still receive 1 percent of the revenues, so both counties will benefit regardless of where the casino is located. Each bidder must pay a gaming privilege fee of $25 million, except for bidders for the Ford County gaming zone, whose privilege fee is $5.5 million. The bill also contains a 25-year moratorium on additional expanded gaming in Kansas and a provision extending the life of the Kansas Lottery for 15 years. |
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