WWW arkcity.net

Rep. says gambling opponents' moves helped pass gambling

By JAMES JORDAN
Traveler Editor

State Rep. Ed Trimmer, D-Winfield, agrees that there was some political game playing involved in the recently-passed gaming bill that expands gambling in the state. However, he believes it was the game-playing of gambling opponents that actually helped get the bill passed.

Both the House and Senate were going to send the bill into a conference committee where both houses had representatives and where differences are hashed out. In that process legislators could get things put in or taken out, and a compromise bill would have emerged.

That didn't happen, and when it became apparent that there would be no conference committee, Trimmer said that forced a vote in the Senate.

"The House speaker wouldn't let us do a conference committee, so the Senate voted, and it passed," Trimmer said. "Now they are screaming politics, but they played politics and it backfired on them."

Last week State Rep. Kasha Kelley, R-Arkansas City, outlined her opposition to the bill, saying proponents used political ploys to get gambling passed without going through the normal process.

Trimmer said he believes the gaming bill is "not a bad piece of legislation."

He said he was not hammered out on the floor of the House as some have asserted.

He said the bill that would allow expanded gambling in the state was attached to the lottery renewal bill because that was the only way it would get passed. The lottery bill was up for renewal and would have passed anyway.

Trimmer said most of the legislators favored expanded gambling, as evidenced by their vote, but political game playing kept it from coming to a vote on the House floor.

"The only way we could do it was to amend it to the lottery bill because of the politics that was being played," he said.

He said the committee "was stacked" against moving it on to the House.

The Speaker of the House is a gaming opponent, and part of his job is making appointments to committees, so he is able to control whether some legislation passes, or even gets a vote, he explained.

The move to circumvent the committee, which Trimmer sees as a political ploy, was a way to carry out the will of the majority of the House, and the majority of Kansans.

He said the gaming lobby has been working on this bill for years, and he believes the assertion that it was thrown at the House all at once is not accurate.

"We have had these proposals for years but could never get it out of committee or for a vote. We finally got it amended to the lottery bill, which was a vehicle that was germane," he said.

He added that the only amendment to the gaming measure was the move to put Sumner County back into the bill. It had been removed earlier. Trimmer said he wasn't sure why that happened, but he supported putting them back in.

He said Sumner County officials had done their homework and had been working on being included.

Trimmer said the people are using a "lot of emotion-laden words, lot's of name calling, but I am not sure that would be limited to one side."

He said the people promoting the bill were "pretty up front" about it.

He added that there were many attempts to add amendments that would have likely killed the bill, and he said he thinks those efforts were "disingenuous."

"They were adding poison pills to get it killed," he said.

Proposals like using the money to support things like all-day kindergarten, with the hope that it would kill the bill, were added by opponents at the last minute. He noted that many Republicans voted against that measure, and others, that they were trying to attach to the bill.

"I hope now that we have gaming, they will support these issues like all-day kindergarten, health care for young children, and small businesses being included in state health care," he said.

One concern he does have about the bill is that he has not so far found wording that guarantees Cowley County a percentage of the gaming proceeds. He has heard that the county is to receive a small percentage which would amount to between $250,000 and $500,000. He said it might be in a trailer bill but so far he has not seen it.

Trimmer agreed that it is unusual for Kansas to be the only state that operates casinos, but he doesn't think that will be a big deal.

"The way the constitution was written, it had to be state-owned, since it was attached to the lottery bill. The state will have tighter control this way," he said.

Trimmer doesn't think the bill will result in great problems - or even many minor ones- for the state.

"If people are against gaming, they are not going to like it whether its state owned or not," he said.

The bill will allow votes in four areas of the state, to decide whether to allow expanded gambling. One of those areas is Wichita, which could allow slot machines at dog racing tracks. It could be some time before there is additional gambling in the state.

Trimmer said the main reason he supported the bill was the amount of gambling in the area already.

"There are casinos in Newkirk. My point is, that it is already here. We are losing revenue to other states, and we already have some gambling in Kansas, so I don't see it getting any worse," he said.

If gambling had been illegal in Kansas, and all around Kansas, he might not have supported the bill, he said.