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June 1, 2009
Racing commission chairman not worried about sudden phase-out
Rolando Pablos, who chairs the Texas Racing Commission, said today that he’s disappointed lawmakers didn’t act on legislation affecting the commission’s survival, but he’s not worried about a possible shut-down.
“We will continue to regulate without skipping a beat,” Pablos said. “I’m not worried.”
The commission is among several agencies whose futures were put in question when the House failed to act late Sunday on a catch-all measure continuing the departments—including the Texas Department of Transportation and Texas Department of Insurance—for two years.
Still uncertain is whether Speaker Joe Straus will let House members vote to bend their close-of-session rules—a step requiring a two-thirds’ vote—to act on the catch-all proposal before this session has to end at midnight today.
Though individual agencies might have other strategies written into law, the Texas Sunset Act provides for agencies that don’t get continued to go out of business after one additional year—in this instance, meaning Sept. 1, 2010.
There’s talk among members that the catch-all proposal could be revived, with two scenarios afloat:
—If Democrats get consideration of legislation to expand health insurance for children of the working poor, they’ll unite with a subset of Republicans to bring back the catch-all plan, or
—If the Republican leadership finds a way to ensure that sunset reviews of the Texas Department of Transportation and Texas Workers Compensation Commission are timed for the 2011 legislative session, members from both parties will go along with taking up the catch-all bill. That proposal now wouldn’t have the two agencies reviewed until the 2013 session.
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May 30, 2009
House urges study of legalizing casinos and slot parlors in Texas
House members voted 98-36 today for a resolution urging House Speaker Joe Straus and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst to create a House-Senate panel to conduct a post-session study of the direct and indirect economic impact of legalizing casinos and slot machines in the state.
Members amended the proposal, which awaits Senate action, by specifying that the study include the negative effects of expanded gaming, an idea advanced by Rep. Charlie Howard, R-Sugar Land.
The resolution was authored by Rep. Edmund Kuempel, R-Seguin, who suffered a heart attack earlier this month and has been out of action. It was presented on the House floor by Rep. Mike “Tuffy” Hamilton, R-Mauriceville.
Asked about the study proposal’s chances of winning Senate consideration given that there are less than three days left in the legislative session, Hamilton said: “They have the ability to pass thousands of bills in the blink of an eye.”
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May 13, 2009
Kuempel proposal for voter approval of casinos derailed
Rep. Edmund Kuempel’s proposal asking Texas voters to legalize casinos and slot parlors in the state won’t be taken up by the full House this week, meaning his hopes of testing voter interest in expanded gaming are dashed.
Kuempel, R-Seguin, chairman of the House Committee on Licensing & Administrative Procedures, had expressed hope at midday Tuesday that his measure would be placed on the House calendar for Thursday, the last day for House members to consider contested House bills and proposed constitutional amendments.
But House Joint Resolution 137 was derailed by getting “tagged” in the House Committee on Calendars. Tags are secretive maneuvers that enable members of the agenda-setting panel to slow legislation from reaching the floor calendar.
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May 12, 2009
UPDATED: Chairman Kuempel requests study of gaming while still pushing casino amendment this session
It looked earlier today like Rep. Edmund Kuempel, R-Seguin, had given up on House approval of a proposed constitutional amendment that would have asked voters to sign off on slot parlors at horse and dog race tracks and casinos around the state and on Indian lands.
Not quite, he advised at the noon hour, adding that he’s still intending to get his proposed amendment to Thursday’s House calendar in hopes of raising the 100 House votes needed to send the amendment to the Senate.
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May 8, 2009
Menendez says poker proposal probably dead for session
Rep. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, has a proposal to authorize public poker games and tournaments in Texas on the House’s floor calendar. But he said at midday he won’t push for action unless GOP Gov. Rick Perry signals he’d sign such a plan into law.
Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle has said Perry opposes any expansion of gambling and that the poker legislation—viewable here—looks like an expansion of gambling.
“For the third session in a row,” Menendez said, “I think poker’s dead.”
He said that when the legislation comes up on the calendar, he’ll ask that it be postponed 12 hours, after letting colleagues know that the governor’s apparent opposition is at issue.
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April 23, 2009
Chairman expects post-session study on gambling in Texas
Chairman Edmund Kuempel of the House Committee on Licensing & Administrative Procedures said today that while he’s still working on a consensus proposal to legalize expanded gambling in Texas, he expects to urge legislative highers-up to order up a post-session study of how the state could or should proceed to permit casinos and/or race track slot-machine parlors.
“We’re going to do a study one way or the other,” Kuempel said, though he noted that the final decision on a study will naturally lie with House Speaker Joe Straus and maybe Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.
Earlier this month, it seemed like the push for expanded gaming in Texas had stalled. Kuempel said today he continues to work on a proposed constitutional amendment, but remains short of anything that would draw the 100 House votes needed to send a plan to the Senate.
“We’re just in a holding pattern,” he said.
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April 15, 2009
Key legislators, Perry aide dine with lead lawyer for Las Vegas-based Wynn Resorts
I wrote earlier this week on lobbying on gambling at the Capitol (peek here).
Turns out that by the time the story went to print, the pro-gambling lobby had expanded with John Pitts (brother to Rep. Jim Pitts, a casinos’ advocate who chairs the House Appropriations Committee) registering to represent Las Vegas-based Wynn Resorts, a giant player in developing resort-style casinos.
And the corporation’s senior vice president and general counsel, Kim Sinatra, dined Monday night at a downtown hotel with Reps. Edmund Kuempel, R-Seguin, who chairs the committee handling gaming proposals, and Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, who’s carrying a resort-casino plan—though Kuempel didn’t stay for dinner. They were joined by Gov. Rick Perry’s legislative director, Ken Armbrister, who sponsored casino measures when he was a state senator.
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April 14, 2009
Gambling lobbyists' cross currents in a debate that might heat up
For Tuesday’s newspaper article on gambling legislation posted here, I found crosscurrents that might bear watching if the gaming debate hottens:
—Greg LaMantia, whose family has licenses for yet-to-be-built horse tracks in McAllen and Laredo, has been seeking or at least exploring a change in law that would enable him to site a track somewhere potentially more lucrative—especially if a proposal authorizing tracks to have slot machines passes into law. Rep. Edmund Kuempel, R-Seguin, chairman of the House Committee on Licensing & Administrative Procedures, said he’s heard LaMantia likes the prospect of using his track license in Fort Worth. A lobbyist for LaMantia didn’t comment.
—Don Hoyte and Billy Hamilton, both former high-level employees of the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, openly disagree on whether fostering casinos in Texas will generate billions of dollars in tax revenue and many jobs. Hoyte says yes. Hamilton, the former deputy comptroller of public accounts, says not so much. Hoyte prepared his analysis on behalf of the pro-casino Texas Gaming Association. Hamilton provided his thoughts to out-of-state casino interests intent on deterring Texas from hastily adopting a casino plan.
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March 30, 2009
Capitol closed-door meeting: Should women vote?
About a dozen female House members went behind closed doors at the Capitol today to discuss the Tigua tribe’s ban on female voting in tribal council elections.
You might be surprised to hear what some of the lawmakers said after the meeting about the ban.
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March 23, 2009
Amendment to ban 8-liners pulled down
Debate on a bill to tighten regulation on 8-liners in the Senate this afternoon quickly turned into a surprise-but-short-lived move to ban the controversial gaming devices altogether.
The brief dramatic turn quickly drew lobbyists on both sides of the issue — gaming interests who support 8-liners, Baptists and other groups who oppose them — into the Senate gallery.
The move began during discussion on Senate Bill 309 that would establish local licenses for businesses that operate 10 or more of so-called amusement redemption machines. Several senators argued that change would put many mom-and-pop stores out of the 8-liner business.
Under current law, those machines are that award non-cash merchandise prizes not worth more tan $5 or 10 times the amount charged to play the game are legal.
Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, offered an amendment to ban all 8-liners.
“People have asked, ‘When is the Legislature going to ban 8-liners?’” Patrick said. “Today is the day.”
Several senators questioned whether the total ban should be carried out by an amendment introduced during Senate debate, and not through a bill that could be properly vetted in public hearings.
“If we’re going to do away with 8-liners, we should do it straight up,” said Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, echoing sentiments of others.
“Senator Patrick is against 8-liners … but if we follow the path that he is trying to get us to go, we will totally wipe out (current law),” Jackson said. “It’s like using a 12-gauge shotgun to kill a flea.”
Patrick noted that Jackson has a separate bill pending, Senate Bill 111, that would outlaw 8-liners. Facing a parliamentary issue, Patrick then withdrew his amendment.
After that, Jackson’s bill was then passed without objection. if the measure is finally approved in the Senate in coming days, it will then go to the House for consideration.
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February 24, 2009
Resort casinos' proposal out of chute; its chances uncertain
Sen. Rodney Ellis has been a state lawmaker for nearly two decades and for much of his tenure, the Houston Democrat has advocated Texas legalizing casinos so residents don’t have to drive or fly out of state to legally gamble.
He was back today along with Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, and Rep. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, saying Texans want to vote on a proposed constitutional amendment that would authorize up to 12 “resort” casinos around the state—including one in Travis County. (The House version is here.)
The payoff to the state would be $3 billion to $4.5 billion a year in revenue, the trio said, which they’d like to see earmarked for college scholarships and road and highway construction.
Absent from their Capitol press conference but not forgotten: Rep. Jim Pitts, D-Waxahachie, chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, whom Menendez said has agreed to sign on as a co-sponsor of the proposals. Pitts, it’s worth noting, has previously worked on legislation authorizing slot machines at dog and horse race tracks.
Pitts’ reported commitment—which could bring along other Republicans, some of them honoring his position atop the budget-drafting panel—may have been the most substantial arrow brandished by casino advocates
But Ellis did not predict their package would pass into law.
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February 17, 2009
Chavez to file gambling bill
Rep. Norma Chavez, D-El Paso, will file legislation that would allow El Paso’s Speaking Rock Casino to re-open.
Chavez is filing her defense-to-prosecution bill that died two years ago on the House floor in a tie vote.
Unlike other gambling measures, her approach would only require a legislative majority — not two-thirds.
In 2002, then-Attorney General John Cornyn closed the casino operated by the Tigua Indian tribe.
Chavez’s filing came on El Paso Day at the Capitol with many of that city’s business and community leaders on hand.
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February 3, 2009
No racino's billion for this biennium
Gambling at existing Texas race tracks won’t be a quick fix for this Legislature’s budget woes.
Economist Jon Hockenyos on Tuesday predicted that slots at Texas tracks could generate about $980 million in new tax revenue, but not until 2011.
His study, produced for the racing group, Texans for Economic Development, estimates Texas could recapture $1.8 billion of the $2.4 billion that is bet in seven nearby states, including Nevada. An additional $1.5 billion in new demand for gambling also would be created.
Hockenyos said as many as 53,000 jobs could be created.
He echoed a similar refrain from other gambling proponents: Texas already is dealing with many of the social problems associated with gambling.
“People who are leaving the state for gaming are coming home with the problems,” Hockenyos said.
Opponents note that the $1.5 billion in new demand for gambling cited in the study would create additional problems. Plus, they argue, having gambling more convenient to Texans would increase the social ills.
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February 26, 2008
Kickapoos going to Supreme Court
The Kickapoos are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review lower court decisions denying the Eagle Pass tribe’s expansion into Las Vegas-style gaming.
Kickapoos operate a casino that offers bingo and poker, but tribal leaders have argued that it should be able to offer more games because the state operates a lottery.
Last year federal officials gave preliminary approval for the expansion, but the state sued to stop the tribe. Last summer a three-judge panel on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a split decision, sent the case to federal district court.
The tribe is asking the Supreme Court to intervene.
The tribe’s attempts to expand gambling began under then Gov. George W. Bush and his general counsel, Alberto Gonzales.
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April 25, 2007
Gambling bill delayed on technicality
Legislation to reopen two tribal casinos suffered a setback this afternoon.
Rep. Robert Talton, R-Houston, raised a point of order which was sustained.
The bill’s author, Rep. Norma Chavez, D-El Paso, predicted that she would have the bill through the committee and back on the House floor by Monday.
HB 10 would provide a legal defense to criminal prosecution if the Tigua and Alabama-Coushatta tribes reopened their casinos, which the state attorney general closed in 2002.
Talton’s point of order noted that the bill analysis did not conform with the language in the bill; in two instances it referred to tribes and not to tribes or tribal organizations.
Talton, a fervent gambling opponent, said “I’ve been in the Legislature since 1993 and I’ve never voted for gambling.”
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April 17, 2007
Spaghetti western theme to gambling hearing
Spooky spaghetti western music (something from Clint Eastwood’s work) broke out as anti-gambling lobbyist Suzii Paynter stepped up to testify against measures including a proposed constitutional amendment to legalize gambling for Texas Indian tribes.
“God is talking to you,” reacted Rep. Kino Flores, D-Palmview, chairman of the House Committee on Licensing and Administrative Procedures.
“You are so right,” Paynter said.
Flores advocates legalizing casinos in Texas. Paynter works against that possibility.
The lights in the committee room didn’t flicker.
The music, which broke out afresh a moment later, was evidently someone’s cell phone ring.
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