Casino bill ‘dead’; Kentucky Baptist leaders applaud opposition
- Apr 9, 2008 - comment
FRANKFORT, Ky.—Failing to find enough support among state legislators, Gov. Steve Beshear admitted defeat on his proposed expanded gambling bill that would have allowed casinos in Kentucky.
With only a few days remaining in the 2008 state legislative session, Beshear announced at a March 27 news conference that he and other House democrats had not been able to garner enough votes to pass the bill out of the House of Representatives and send it to the state Senate.
“For this session, I would say it is dead,” he conceded.
At stake was a constitutional amendment that would have brought as many as nine casinos to Kentucky, five of which would have been built at the state’s horse racing tracks. The bill required the support of at least 60 House members to pass, a number which Beshear said he was unlikely to get. He added that passage of the bill “turned out to be a lot harder than I think anybody thought it would.”
The announcement was certainly a setback for the new governor who ran last year on the platform of bringing casino gambling to the commonwealth as a way to boost the economy and relieve the state’s budget shortfall.
On the flip side, Kentucky Baptist leaders are claiming victory in the latest round of the fight to keep expanded gambling out of the state.
“Certainly, we’re very pleased with the outcome and that the bill is dead for now,” remarked John Chowning, chairman of the Kentucky Baptist Convention’s Committee on Public Affairs.
Chowning, who also is vice president of church and external relations at Campbellsville University, commended Kentucky Baptists for their efforts to “express their oppositions and their concerns, and to articulate those concerns in very positive and constructive ways.”
KBC President Bill Henard echoed Chowning’s affirmation of other KBC leaders in helping “to mobilize Kentucky Baptists like myself, to stand for what’s right and to help defeat this,” he said.
“I am excited for all Kentuckians,” added Henard, who is pastor of Porter Memorial Baptist Church in Lexington, “because expanded gambling was not going to help us in any way.”
Chowning called the campaign to stop gambling expansion “an extraordinary coalition effort,” adding that Kentucky Baptists united with people of many different faiths to voice their opposition.
Recognizing the need to step up, the KBC passed a resolution opposing expanded gambling at its annual meeting last November. Several groups even took the fight right to the governor’s door step, rallying in the Capitol Rotunda. Among them were a group led by the KBC’s African-American Pastors’ Fellowship and Women Against Gambling Expansion, led by Kentucky Woman’s Missionary Union Executive Director Joy Bolton.
Henard acknowledged that while the governor’s casino plan may have stalled this time, the gambling machine is unlikely to slow down.
“They’ve already invested quite a bit of money in the state and I would assume that they’re still going to invest more to try to get gambling here,” he said.
Chowning agreed, saying that gambling interest groups likely will band together with the horse racing industry to continue “to raise the banner of why they need” casino gambling.
“I think they will pour money in (and) target select legislative races that they think they can win to elect proponents of expanded gambling,” he said.
Chowning also noted that this most recent fight against casinos is just the latest in a long line of battles that has continued the past 15 years. Therefore, he encouraged Kentucky Baptists and all expanded gambling opponents to “stay vigilant and alert on this issue.”
“I don’t think expanded gambling is dead long term,” Chowning said. “We can’t just say we fought the fight and the battle is over. … It will come again.”
This article is reprinted from the April 1, 2008, issue of the Western Recorder, the newspaper of the Kentucky Baptist Convention.
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