Fate of casino bill could come down to one vote in 11

The 11 members of the House Elections, Constitutional Amendments and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee will have the red-hot casino issue and all the political intrigue that comes with it plopped in their laps at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Here's how it will go down:

• Two House leaders -- Reps. Rob Wilkey and Larry Clark -- will offer up a committee substitute version of the constitutional amendment that will call for "up to five casinos by horse racing Associations licensed by the Commonwealth as of January 1, 2008 and up to four other casinos."
• Rep. Darryl Owens, the committee's chairman, will offer up the draft that the subcommittee on casinos passed last week as a competing committee substitute. (That, by the way, is the draft that House Speaker Jody Richards is putting his weight behind.)
• To be adopted by the committee, a committee substitute requries the majority of however many members are present.
• Whichever version is adopted will then require six votes -- a majority of the 11 members on the committee.

So who has the votes?

Wilkey says his proposal does. But he noted "it's a fairly divided group."

Rep. Greg Stumbo -- placed by Richards on that committee 11 days ago -- said he thinks the version that Owens and Richards are pushing has the most support on the committee.

But it's a fairly fluid group. Wilkey of Scottsville and Clark of Louisville are both on the committee, and will, of course, back their proposal. Clark might be able to talk fellow Louisvillian, Rep. Kevin Bratcher, a Republican, to side with them.

On the other side, Owens has the backing of Stumbo and likely -- though not definite -- support from Rep. Melvin Henley, D-Murray, and Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, D-Louisville.

But the remaining four votes on the panel -- two Republicans and two Democrats -- are more mysterious at this point.

The two Republicans, Rep. Joe Fischer, R-Ft. Thomas, and Rep. Mike Harmon, R-Junction City, are both opposed to casinos, so it's unclear what direction they might go.

Rep. Dottie Sims, D-Horse Cave, can be unpredictable in her voting. And Rep. Kathy Stein, D-Lexington, played coy last night when asked which side she's on.

She said she wants to see what proposals are offered up and whether a new version emerges. When pressed, she said she didn't know if another draft is in the works Monday night in time for the 8:30 a.m. Tuesday committee meeting.

"I want to make sure whatever we do, we make sure we not only protect but augment the thoroughbred industry in Kentucky," she said.  "I’ll just have to see what comes up in the morning."

"Nobody knows what I’m going to do from day to day," she said.

- Ryan Alessi

Comments

[Preston]

I hope that when the horse trailers actually circle the capitol today that somebody checks who is driving them. Few throughbred owners/breeders who are backing this bill drive their own. They hire vans or have low-wage workers do it. It's not exactly like real farmers used to do when they drove their own tractors to the capitol.