Posts Tagged ‘kentucky legislature’

By Ray Paulick
UPDATE: Frankfort insiders say that the A & R Senate Committee will not meet until Monday and Senate President Williams will allow the bill to be heard. Interested parties will have the weekend and Monday morning to contact their Senators.

If the bill to approve video lottery terminals for Kentucky racetracks passes the state’s House of Representatives during the special session on Friday, the next battleground will likely be the Senate’s Appropriations and Revenue Committee later in the day. That’s the most likely scenario for the bill, the Paulick Report has learned from sources. Republican Senate president David Williams, an opponent of the bill, is expected to send it to the A & R Committee with the likelihood that it will be killed under the chairmanship of northeast Kentucky Republican Charlie Borders.

Interested parties are encouraged to personally attend the Senate committee meeting.

If you are unable to attend and want your opinion to be heard on the issue, call members of the committee to tell them where you stand. Click here for a list of members of the Senate A & R Committee. Once on the page, click on the names of the individual members to get contact information.

 

By Ray Paulick
Perhaps I was wrong about Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear when I wrote on Sunday that I didn’t think he would be able to demonstrate the kind of leadership necessary to help push through legislation allowing Kentucky racetracks to install slot machines and better compete with tracks in other states.

This afternoon, Beshear issued what for him was a tough and pointed statement on the subject. In so doing, he added a proposal for slots (technically they will be called Video Lottery Terminals and be run by the Kentucky Lottery Corporation) to the agenda for the special session of the legislature, to deal with the state’s budget crisis. The Democratic governor called for the session to begin June 15.

The Kentucky Equine Education Project applauded Beshear’s initiative, issuing the following statement: "We are extremely excited that the governor has chosen to include VLTs at racetracks on the special session agenda. His leadership on this initiative should be applauded by everyone involved in the signature industry of the state. We’re confident that he and most members of the House and Senate will shepherd this legislation through successful passage. It is critically important to level the competitive playing  field with others states. This is exactly what is needed and at the exact time it is needed."

Click here to view Beshear’s official proclamation on the horse industry and the need for VLTs to assist it.

Following is the full press release issued by Beshear’s office:
 
Beshear: Gaming necessary to help save horse industry
VLTs would be limited to tracks, provide needed revenue

FRANKFORT, Ky. (June 4, 2009) – Saying Kentucky’s horse industry is threatened with extinction, Gov. Steve Beshear today added a proposal to this month’s special legislative session to allow expanded gaming at the state’s racetracks to increase purses and breeder incentives.

“Kentucky’s horse industry – a living, breathing part of our cultural heritage and one of our strongest, most precious  commodities abroad – is in a state of crisis,” Gov. Beshear told reporters today in announcing his proposal. “Some even say it’s dying.”

Gov. Beshear said the proposal – which would limit Video Lottery Terminals (VLTs) to approved racetracks – would level the playing field for Kentucky’s horse industry, which has faced increasing competition from states that have increased race purses and breeder incentives from expanded gaming proceeds.

The result, he said, is that Kentucky is losing race dates at Churchill Downs; other tracks are facing closure and owners, breeders and jockeys are going elsewhere to board and race horses. About 100,000 jobs are connected with the horse industry in Kentucky, which translates into a $4 billion economic impact.

“Kentucky is, and remains, the horse capital of the world,” Gov. Beshear said. “But if we do not act, if we refuse to stand up for our signature industry, that title could be changed to Former Horse Capital of the World.

“As Governor, I cannot – and I will not – stand idly by and let that happen. Not without a fight. This proposal would allow thousands of working-class Kentuckians to continue to provide their families with a roof over their heads, food on their tables and the ability to send their kids to school.”

The Governor said his administration is continuing to work on draft legislation, which he hopes will be finalized in the coming days. He said it would contain details of how VLTs, which would be run through the Kentucky Lottery Corporation, would be taxed and generate revenue for both the state and industry.

Gov. Beshear said that while expanded gaming at the tracks would not impact the upcoming year’s budget, it would create recurring net revenues, which could help close the gap created when federal stimulus dollars are no longer available in two years. Such revenues would, undoubtedly, help with funding for schools, health care and public safety. Moreover, Gov. Beshear said, he believes the legislature can move forward with this proposal without a Constitutional amendment.

“The legislature, in our judgment, has the authority,” he said. “Now, we must determine if we have the will.”

Finally, Gov. Beshear said, that while he is willing to consider other ideas for helping one of Kentucky’s signature industries, it is time to make a decision on gaming, which has been the subject of intense debate for many years.

“Time is of the essence, and right now, this idea is the only one on the table,” he said. “It’s time to vote on it – up or down, with full knowledge of what is at stake and what is at risk … Political machinations and calculations are, frankly, not a part of my reasoning today. The unknown cannot be an excuse for timidity or inaction.

“Today, I am calling on legislators and the people of Kentucky to come forward and save the horse industry … before it is too late.”
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By Ray Paulick
So Kentucky’s governor, Democrat Steve Beshear, has called a special session of the state’s legislature, beginning June 15, to deal with what he said was a budget crisis. The news landed with a rather indifferent thud in many regions of Kentucky, in part because David Williams, the Republican Senate president, said Beshear’s reasons for the session weren’t valid.

Beshear  was elected in 2007 largely on the platform of expanding gambling to ease Kentucky’s budget shortfalls and to help the struggling horse industry. Since then, he seems to have spent a majority of his time hiding in an undisclosed location, peering out occasionally to issue proclamations and reassure Kentucky residents that he is still alive and well. He looks to be no match for Williams, who has managed to bully many members of his own party to the point that they cower in a corner of indecision on important issues until hearing from their anointed leader. If Williams says nothing is going to happen in a special session, it’s a pretty safe bet nothing is going to happen—unless someone has the courage to take him on.

The third leg of Kentucky’s political stool is Democratic House leader Greg Stumbo, who has been the point person for carrying out Beshear’s election promise to help Kentucky’s horse industry compete with neighboring states Indiana, West Virginia and Illininois, by proposing legislation permitting slot machines at racetracks. Stumbo hopes the slots issue will be addressed during the special session but painted a bleak picture for the prospects of that happening with these words: “The governor’s leadership is critical.”

Asking Steve Beshear to show leadership at this stage of his governorship is a bit like asking Calvin Borel to send Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird to the early lead in a six-furlong race. I guess anything is possible, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. Sure, he talked a good game when he spoke at the Kentucky Derby Trainers’ Dinner in Louisville during Derby week, saying he didn’t want to be the governor who was presiding over the death of the Thoroughbred industry, but that was like throwing red meat into a pack of starving lions.

The Kentucky Equine Education Project (KEEP) has been quietly laying the groundwork for this special session, sending out hundreds of thousands of brochures to Kentuckians about the fast-declining state of the horse industry and placing radio ads and newspaper op-ed pieces around the state. But KEEP can’t do it on their own. They need help in the state capital of Frankfort.

Meanwhile, other states are having Kentucky’s racing industry for lunch. West Virginia, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Louisiana and other slots-enriched racing programs are attracting horses from the Bluegrass State because higher purses are being offered. Breeding stock is beginning to leave Kentucky, too. The Illinois Senate approved a racetrack slots bill (it’s unclear whether the House will OK the measure), but that state already has riverboat casinos where Kentuckians are spending their gambling dollars.

It’s time Beshear man-up and take on David Williams in this issue that is critical to the horse industry and Kentucky. The governor should ask Williams about his trips to gambling boats in Indiana, and whether or not the Senate president is ever “comped” on those trips or given special treatment by the casino companies who will fight tooth and nail to keep slot machines away from Kentucky tracks. He should ask if Williams has something against the horse business, the signature industry in Kentucky.

I doubt we’ll see that happen, if recent events are any indication. After Eclipse Award-winning writer Billy Reed’s blog post on his web site about Williams’ opposition to the horse industry (Williams is enemy no. 1 to racing in Kentucky) was distributed by a staffer for the Kentucky Horse Racing Racing Commission to all of its members, the Paulick Report learned that Beshear apologized to Williams and castigated the commission staffer for daring to send out anything that was critical of the Senate president.

If that’s the kind of leadership we can expect in the upcoming special session, we can kiss any slots legislation goodbye, Kentucky’s signature industry will continue its downward spiral, and the state’s budget crisis will go unresolved.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick

Richard Duchossois, who became the largest shareholder in Churchill Downs Inc. when his wholly owned Arlington Park racetrack was merged with Churchill in September 2000, has been steadily adding to his holdings over the last 10 months. In September alone, the Chicago industrialist has purchased 17,296 shares of CDI.

As part of the original agreement to merge Arlington into Churchill, Duchossois Industries received 3,150,000 shares of CDI and had a right to receive another 1,250,000 shares.

Last November, Duchossois bought nearly 15,000 additional shares in the $49-$50 per share range. In December he bought approximately 25,000 in the $52 range. In March he purchased 69,000 at prices between $45-$47 per share. In August he bought 29,000 shares, about a third of them at $37 per share and the rest around $43.

Churchill stock (CHDN) closed at $50.48 per share on Friday.

The only other major insider trading transactions of CDI stock in the last year was the sale of 15,931 shares by CEO Bob Evans.

Churchill officials are hoping the Kentucky legislature passes legislation permitting racetracks in the state to add slot machines as several other racing states have done, including to the north and West Virginia to the east. Pro-slots legislator Greg Stumbo (formerly the state’s attorney general) said recently he will mount a challenge to be Kentucky’s speaker of the house, a position currently held by Jody Richards, who has fallen into disfavor with many in the horse industry because he blocked a casino bill earlier this year.

The company has had some difficulties in 2008 over contract negotiations with horsemen at CDI-owned Calder in Florida and its flagship track in Louisville, Ky. Purse cuts resulted at both tracks. It will be adding slot machines at Calder after a local referendum was approved, and its other track, Fair Grounds, will be offering record purses at its upcoming meeting, thanks to slot machine revenue.