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Kentucky: Governor Throws Hail Mary for Casinos

March 26, 2008 — Gov. Steve Beshear (D), elected to office last November on a pledge to bring casino gambling to Kentucky and thereby increase revenues, is down to the waning hours of this year’s legislative session and his chances of getting a bill are near zero. In an eleventh hour effort to breathe new life into his all-but-dead proposal, Beshear held a press conference on Monday, flanked by 19 legislators including the top leadership of the House, to make a last-ditch plea for action on the bill. The legislature will adjourn on March 29. It will come back in April 14 and 15 to consider vetoed legislation; at that time, lawmakers could theoretically pass a casino bill, but it isn’t likely.   

“I don’t see any hope at all for [the governor’s proposal],” says Kentucky Roll Call editor Lowell Reese, who covers the legislature up close. The governor’s one hope says Reese  -- and a small one at that -- is that when the House and Senate conferees try to iron out differences in their recently passed budget bills, they will come up against the hard truth of not enough revenue. Then casinos, which could be taxed to bring in some $600 million a year by Beshear’s estimate, might suddenly have some last minute appeal. Reese notes that the governor’s failure on this issue is hurting him politically. “On casinos, he made a promise that he’s unable to keep.” 

Another longtime observer of Bluegrass politics confirms Reese’s assessment, saying there is “no chance at all of getting [the casino proposal] on the ballot. It could pass the House, though that is doubtful, but not the Senate,” where the GOP is firmly in control.  

The bill has at most 55 lawmakers in the House behind it, but since it is a constitutional amendment, it requires 60 votes for passage; moreover, House Speaker Jody Richards (D) says he wants 62 pledges before he’ll bring it to a vote, to provide a safety margin. Although the House is controlled by the Democrats by a substantial 63-36 majority, Beshear has been cross-ways with his own party’s legislative leaders over budget matters, which hasn’t helped Beshear’s clout with lawmakers. House Speaker Richards has already substituted his own casino proposal for the governor’s -- calling for nine casinos, not 12 like the governor’s plan.  

One harbinger of the issue’s political risks came in a special election in February to choose a successor in the state senate for Beshear’s lieutenant governor, Dan Mongiardo. The Republican candidate, despite being outspent more than two-to-one by the Democratic nominee, campaigned on an anti-casino platform and won the formerly Democratic seat. The implications of the election were not lost on lawmakers, Democrat or Republican. 

In sum, if a miracle occurs and a casino bill does pass the House, it has even dimmer prospects in the GOP-controlled Senate. If the proposal should clear that hurtle, it would have to pass muster with the voters in November in a statewide referendum. That wouldn’t be easy, what with all of Kentucky’s major religious groups, Protestant and Catholic, black and white, having come out against making casinos legal.