Follow up article about the wheeling and dealing in Tallahassee concerning the new Marlins Stadium

 

 

 

LEGISLATURE | GAMBLING

Slots, stadium in tax-bill mix

With property taxes as the stated rationale, House Republicans offered up a bill to expand gambling at parimutuels, including in Miami-Dade County.

BY MARY ELLEN KLAS, BREANNE GILPATRICK AND YUDY PINEIRO

meklas@MiamiHerald.com

 

 

 

 

TALLAHASSEE -- The Florida House of Representatives, which has consistently killed efforts to expand gambling in the state, suddenly resurrected a committee Monday for just one vote: to allow slot machines at 10 racetracks and jai-alai frontons, including four in Miami-Dade County.

 

The stated rationale for the change of mind: Tax revenue from gambling would help cut property taxes.

 

The other, less public, reason: a stadium for the Florida Marlins.

 

The deal would work like this: The House hates gambling but wants to give a $60 million subsidy to the Marlins to build a retractable-roof stadium. The Senate doesn't care for the Marlins stadium but has already voted to allow parimutuels throughout the state to put in slot machines.

 

So each chamber would hold its nose to pass a bill it dislikes to get something it badly wants.

 

House leaders denied Monday there is any direct link between the gambling bill and Marlins measure, but the sponsors are hopeful that since the gambling money would be steered to property tax cuts, both will survive.

 

''It appears to me there is a desire on the part of leaders of both chambers to give each issue a vote,'' said Sen. Steve Geller, the Senate Democratic Leader and sponsor of the slots bill. He added that the extra revenue from gaming would make the cost of the Marlins bill -- $2 million a year for 30 years -- ``easier to stomach.''

 

The House sponsor, Rep. David Rivera, a Miami Republican, said he would be ''appreciative'' if his push to bring the gambling bill to a vote provokes a Senate vote on the Marlins.

 

And Senate Republican Leader Dan Webster, a Winter Garden Republican, who last week vowed that the Marlins bill won't come to a vote in his chamber, on Monday gave a noncommittal ``we'll see.''

 

CLASS II SLOTS

 

The proposal would allow Calder Race Track, Flagler Dog Track, Miami Jai Alai, Hialeah Race Course and six other parimutuels around the state to offer slot machines -- known in Tallahassee parlance as ''video lottery terminals'' -- without getting voter approval. Hialeah would first have to reapply for its racing license.

 

The machines, also called Class II or bingo-style terminals, are identical to the ones now used by the Seminole and Miccosukee Indians at their casinos. They look like Vegas-style slots but produce lower payouts because players in essence bet against one another and not the house.

 

The House Environment and Natural Resources Council approved the bill 13-1 in an extrordinary late-session meeting, convened specially to pass the bill before a friendly committee.

 

The estimated $1 billion that would be raised from those nine facilites would be sent to school districts across the state, which would then have to reduce property taxes levied to pay for schools.

 

If the plan is approved, taxpayers could see savings of about 10 to 20 percent on the schools portion of their property tax bill.

 

''It's a tax cut,'' said the council's chairman, Rep. Stan Mayfield, a Vero Beach Republican.

 

Gov. Charlie Crist said Monday he'd been told of the House proposal but is withholding judgment until he sees the final version of the bill.

 

''I want the Legislature to finish its job,'' he said. ''Then our lawyers will review the bill and we'll take a position.''

 

DIFFERENT OBJECTIVES

 

The deal is loaded with political curveballs. House Speaker Marco Rubio said he personally will vote against any bill to expand gambling, but added he won't stand in the way of letting it pass through his chamber.

 

Senate President Ken Pruitt is privately pushing for the passage of the slot machines bill and has said he won't stand in the way of a bill to assist the Marlins.

 

And Rivera, who is one of Rubio's closest lieutenants, personally supports gambling and is being courted by Miami-Dade gambling interests, who want to conduct a voter referendum next year to bring Vegas-style slot machines to county parimutuels next year.

 

But the conservative House is hostile territory for gambling measures, and there's no guarantee the slots bill will pass.

 

A more routine bill -- to loosen slots regulations at Broward's parimutuels by expanding the number and hours of operations of slot machines and allowing them to put ATMs on their property -- barely passed on a 61-52 vote on Monday.

 

Rivera said the vote sent a signal that his bill will have trouble. ''It certainly has challenges,'' he said.

 

There is no assurance the Senate will agree with the House proposal. The Senate version would allow all 25 parimutuels in the state to expand to Class II slots and generate an estimated $1.9 billion in tax revenue a year.

 

The House plan limits the new slots games to parimutuels in counties with populations of over 800,000, or within 40 miles of an existing casino operated by an Indian tribe. The bill prohibits Broward County parimutuels from offering the machines, unless they give up the Vegas-style Class III gaming devices they now use.

 

Some legislators complained Monday that the issue was rushed through.

 

''I just found out about this,'' said Rep. Rich Glorioso, a Plant City Republican. ``I don't like this bill, but I'm going to let it go to the floor because I believe anything this large and of this magnitude needs to be [decided] by the entire chamber.''

 

Miami Herald staff writer Marc Caputo contributed to this report.

Wasnt there a vote on this a few years back on the ballot for the rights to put in these "video gambling machines" anyways?

Sounds like a good plan to me. Each chamber gets something it wants and the tax payers of Florida benefit. I guess we'll find out soon enough if it works.

In today's paper, they say that the slots deal is probably dead due to pressure by Broward county's Las Vegas style casinos. They don't want anyone else competing for their gambling money. This may mean the Marlins stadium deal is back in trouble. But hey, the way things go back and forth in this legislature, we will definitely have to wait until 11:59 pm Friday evening to see what really happens. There may even call a specially session of the legislature if the property tax issue is not settled in time, so the wait may even go beyond Friday night.

In today's paper, they say that the slots deal is probably dead due to pressure by Broward county's Las Vegas style casinos. They don't want anyone else competing for their gambling money. This may mean the Marlins stadium deal is back in trouble. But hey, the way things go back and forth in this legislature, we will definitely have to wait until 11:59 pm Friday evening to see what really happens. There may even call a specially session of the legislature if the property tax issue is not settled in time, so the wait may even go beyond Friday night.

 

Broward's casinos though are Native American casinos so I do not see how they can come into play.

In today's paper, they say that the slots deal is probably dead due to pressure by Broward county's Las Vegas style casinos. They don't want anyone else competing for their gambling money. This may mean the Marlins stadium deal is back in trouble. But hey, the way things go back and forth in this legislature, we will definitely have to wait until 11:59 pm Friday evening to see what really happens. There may even call a specially session of the legislature if the property tax issue is not settled in time, so the wait may even go beyond Friday night.

 

Broward's casinos though are Native American casinos so I do not see how they can come into play.

Last year there was a question on the ballot that passed in Broward but failed in Miami-Dade concerning the slot machines ( Class III or Las Vegas style slot machines) in parimutuels. This is what I'm talking about, not the Hot Rock Casino and the like, which as you correctly state, are native American casinos.

 

Here is the article:

 

 

 

LEGISLATURE 2007

Low priorities fall by the wayside in Legislature

Miami's parimutuels saw slots in their future -- until House support faded.

BY MARY ELLEN KLAS AND AMY DRISCOLL

meklas@MiamiHerald.com

 

TALLAHASSEE -- State House leaders all but crushed a brief vision of new life for Miami-Dade County's struggling parimutuels Tuesday when they said that a bill to allow a broad expansion of gambling in Florida may never get a hearing.

 

The reversal came one day after an extraordinary vote from the anti-gambling House when a committee -- specially reconstituted just to hear a bill that would allow slot machines at 10 Florida parimutuels -- passed the bill 13-1. The measure would allow Class II, bingo-style slots at the 10 sites, including four in Miami-Dade: Miami Jai-Alai, Calder Race Course, Flagler Dog Track and the long-shuttered Hialeah Park.

 

The bill had been expected to move quickly to the House floor by today. But after intense lobbying from Broward parimutuels -- who saw the proposal as increasing their competition -- the narrow margin of support in the House appeared to evaporate Tuesday. Broward is the only county in Florida with Las Vegas-style slot machines.

 

Rep. Ray Sansom, the Destin Republican who chairs the Budget and Policy Council, where the bill is now stalled, said he wouldn't remove the bill from his council, then went further, adding: ``We're not planning to meet again.''

 

Sansom left alive a sliver of possibility, noting that ''things may change'' in the slots bill. House leaders have put a bill on the calendar tomorrow that could serve as the vehicle to resurrecting the measure if pro-slots forces persuade House leaders to amend the slots bill onto it and bring the measure to a vote of the 120-member house.

 

Like the slots bill, dozens of other measures appeared in jeopardy, including the push to cut property taxes in Florida, the effort to award the Florida Marlins money to finance a retractable-roof stadium and bills dealing with voting-machine paper trails and auto insurance. Talks continued between House and Senate leaders behind the scenes on property taxes Tuesday, but there was no progress in sight.

 

NO DIRECTION

 

'This is like a kids' soccer match,'' said House Democratic Leader Dan Gelber. ``There's a lot of running back and forth with no strategic direction.''

 

Even the governor got involved, dispatching his chief of staff, George LeMieux, to shuttle between the House and Senate to keep talks going.

 

''They're working hard,'' LeMieux said. ``If they don't get it done, it won't be from lack of effort.''

 

As tensions increased between the House and Senate, emotions frayed within the House, where the Republican-dominated Rules Council refused to allow several Democratic bills come to the floor.

 

Gelber said the council had ``been less than fair in the bills that are being heard.''

 

The stalemate on the slots bill also left parimutuel officials unsure of what to expect.

 

''I think this will be one of those issues that will go down to 11:59 and 30 seconds on Friday night at the very end of the session,'' said Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina. ``There'll be some horse-trading back and forth. . . . This is one of those items they'll use to negotiate.''

 

The proposal took many of the parimutuels by surprise, coming in the final week of the session with little build-up. It caused a flurry of excitement at venerable institutions like Miami Jai-Alai, which has been in existence since 1926.

 

''It's very interesting. It would certainly put us on a closer par with Indian gaming and the Broward casinos,'' said Dan Licciardi, vice president and general manager of the fronton. ``It would definitely help.''

 

EARLIER PLAN

 

But he said the facility, owned by Florida Gaming, also would benefit from a previous plan to put slots to another local vote in Miami-Dade. In 2005, voters narrowly rejected the proposal but it passed in Broward County, giving slots to four parimutuels.

 

''We'd love to see the Legislature pass this current proposal, but we'd also love to give voters another chance in Miami-Dade -- either way,'' Licciardi said. ``Miami has now had a chance to see how it works in Broward, and I think we'd like to put it to another vote here.''

 

At Calder, owned by Churchill Downs, president Ken Dunn said he also will wait until the last day of the session before setting a course of action on slots.

 

He noted that the proposed House bill allows only for video lottery terminals, Class II gaming, instead of the Class III, Las Vegas-style machines allowed at Broward casinos.

 

''We're in the process of evaluating our opportunities,'' he said.

 

At Flagler Dog Track, vice president Isadore Havenick said slots are critical to revitalizing a dying business.

 

''When we say slot machines will save our business, we're not kidding,'' he said. ``We're losing money. We need slots.''