House may fold soon on gambling amendment

By RONNIE ELLIS
CNHI News Service

FRANKFORT Sat, May 17 2008

— When Gov. Steve Beshear, members of the Democratic House Leadership and representatives of teachers’ groups gathered Monday in the Capitol rotunda, they said they would make a final push to pass an expanded gambling amendment — with an eye toward taking a vote in the House on Wednesday.
Not so fast.
House Speaker Jody Rich-ards, D-Bowling Green, said Wednesday those favoring passage of the amendment haven’t given up, but it’s unlikely there will be a vote before Friday.
Asked how many solid votes the measure might have in the House and when a vote might take place, Richards laughed.
“Well ... ,” he began, “I’ve been a little bit busy doing other things.” Other things, of course, means trying to work out differences between the Senate and House versions of a two-year state budget and passage of pension reform and ethics reform legislation.
Beshear, who made ex-panded gambling a key issue in his campaign for governor, seemed to hint even he realizes there is almost no time left to pass the measure in the House.
“We’re going to be touching base with the House leadership (Wednesday) afternoon or tomorrow to see if we need to do something more or say it’s time to stop,” Beshear said.
There are only six days left in the 60-day session and leaders of both the Senate and House are determined to reserve at least two of those to consider overriding any vetoes of legislation by Be-shear. So that leaves only four days to get the amendment through the House and Senate by the required 60 percent margin — 60 votes in the House and 23 in the Senate.
Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, has said throughout the session the measure can’t pass in the Senate and has taken delight in pointing out that it doesn’t appear to have support in the Democratically controlled House either.
On Monday, Beshear and amendment supporters, in-cluding Richards, said the measure had around 50 votes, but others say it’s short of the 50 mark.
“I think it’s going down,” said House Minority Leader Jeff Hoover, R-Jamestown, when asked how many votes the measure might have. Hoover is opposed to the measure.
Richards said he hasn’t given up on passing a casino gambling amendment.
“Well, we’re still working on it,” he said Wednesday. But when asked if he’d call the measure for a vote on Wed-nesday as supporters had hoped Monday when they gathered in the rotunda, Richards replied: “Not today.”
Thursday?
“I doubt it,” Richards said. “By the end of the week.”
Which may mark the end of casino gambling — at least for this session.
Ronnie Ellis writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com.