Republican gubernatorial candidate Bradley Byrne said acute issues like education and jobs are out there, but bingo is becoming the issue in an election year when all constitutional and legislative offices are on the ballot.
“It’s the tail wagging the dog,” Byrne said Friday.
Alabama’s main revenues continued their drop for the fourth month into the 2009-2010 fiscal year. All revenues were down 2.75 percent for the four months of the year compared with last year, according to the Revenue Department, a decrease of $76 million.
Retired Auburn University Montgomery political science professor D’Linell Finley said there will be considerable pressure to tap bingo casinos as a revenue source for General Fund and Education Trust Fund budgets during the current legislative session.
“Even the anti-gambling groups can see if you put a ballot out this go-around, this just might pass for the very reason just stated,” Finley said. He said with an effective public relations campaign, bingo opponents will have to counter with other constructive ways to raise money.
A sampling of gubernatorial candidates reveals growing pressure to seek revenue from bingo in order to ease some of Alabama’s budget problems.
“Alabama faces a critical shortfall in its budget,” said U.S. Rep. Artur Davis, D-Birmingham, who seeks his party’s gubernatorial nomination. “I support a simple way to immediately draw down tax revenues from gambling: tax all gaming institutions at a 20 percent to 25 percent rate and distribute those proceeds to the current shortfall in the Education Trust Fund.”
State agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks also seeks the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. “It’s here and we need to tax it and control it and get a statewide gaming commission and use that revenue and put people back to work,” Sparks said of bingo.
Byrne says there is other pressure to get bingo on the Nov. 2 ballot.
“I think the real pressure being created is the casinos that have been shut down,” said Byrne, a former state senator. “The loss of money to people who own them will be used to put pressure on legislators directly and indirectly.”
Jeff Emerson, a spokesman for Gov. Bob Riley, agreed.
“Legislators will know if they’re getting pressure,” Emerson said. “I imagine they are getting pressure from the casino bosses.”
Three of four major Alabama bingo casinos were closed as of Friday while Riley’s Task Force on Illegal Gambling continued to seek legal authority to raid them. Riley considers all electronic bingo machines in Alabama to be illegal slot machines.
State Rep. Jack Page, D-Gadsden, vice chairman of the House Government Appropriations Committee, said if a bingo constitutional amendment is on the Nov. 2 ballot and voters approve it, it would be well into the 2010-2011 fiscal year before the state would get money.
“It could take six months to realize anything if it’s ratified,” Page said. “It’s clear it would help and yes it would create jobs, but its not a cure all.”
Rep. Marcel Black, D-Tuscumbia, and Sen. Roger Bedford, D-Russellville, have introduced constitutional amendments asking voters to approve electronic bingo at about 10 locations, create a statewide gambling commission and tax bingo at 25 percent of the gross after winnings are paid.
A constitutional amendment would have to pass both houses of the Legislature.
Black said 20 percentage points of the 25-percent tax would go to the two state funds, with 65 percent of it going to education and 35 percent to the General Fund. The other 5 percentage points of the tax would go to counties much like liquor taxes.
“I think having a revenue source that is untaxed currently is certainly a positive for anybody that would consider a constitutional amendment to allow people to vote whether to tax and regulate bingo,” Black said. “There’s a lot of lost revenue and there’s not any other way to raise revenue that is on the horizon.”
Riley’s office said there’s another type of pressure, the cost of problem gambling and any cost to Alabama’s economy.
“They are saying casinos are good for the economy and would bring a net increase in revenue,” Riley spokesman Todd Stacy said. “We say they aren’t good for the economy and would actually cost taxpayers based on a lot of credible research.”
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