“This bill is a product of back room politics and broken promises.”

The Family Foundation calls casino bill a
product of “back room politics”

LEXINGTON, KY – “This is no way to do the public’s business,” said Martin Cothran, senior policy analyst for The Family Foundation of Kentucky, responding to today’s committee vote on HB 600, a constitutional amendment opening up the state to casino gambling.  “The new version of this bill, which was apparently cooked up in a smoke- filled room somewhere, was sprung on committee members at the last possible moment and was voted on with no discussion.”

“There was no presentation of the new version of the bill, there was no discussion—the bill sponsor wasn’t even present for the vote,” said Cothran, referring to the fact that the sponsor of HB 600, Rep. Joe Barrows (D-Versailles) did not show up for the meeting.  “That’s how back room politics works: you don’t need public deliberation if everything has been decided beforehand.”

“This bill is the product of back room politics and broken promises,” said Cothran. 

After hearing several bills, House Licensing and Occupations Committee Chairman Denver Butler quickly called for a vote on the bill, eliminating any opportunity for opponents to testify.  The bill passed by a 12-6 margin in a committee dominated by lawmakers from Louisville.

“The only discussion of this bill took place in a vacant committee room down the hall after the vote had already taken place,” said Cothran in reference to an impromptu press conference in Room 125 after the meeting, where Sen. David Boswell made his case for the bill. “We would have liked to hear the case for this bill before the vote,” said Cothran, “not after it had already taken place.”

 “Casino advocates had promised before the session that they would bring out a bill early and that lawmakers would have plenty of time to consider its implications.  They said they were going to keep everything out in the open. They said they would include language that specified exactly where the money would go.  They also said they were going to keep it at the horse tracks.  Now we have a bill that does none of these things.”

“Here we are with less than two weeks left in the session looking at a bill that doesn’t specify where these casinos would be or where the money is going to go.  The bill didn’t even go the Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee where, according to House Rules, it was supposed to go.”

 “It’s not a good sign for democracy that discussion about important public policy issues has to take place behind closed doors and outside the normal political process.”

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Martin Cothran is the senior policy analyst for The Family Foundation, a nonprofit public policy organization that works on behalf of the family and the values that make families strong.