The governor of Kentucky, Steve Beshear, has put the challenge of passing slots at tracks directly into the
hands of his legislature.
Beshear proposed a two-year budget to that group yesterday which includes $780 million in revenue from expanded gambling, which the Louisville Courier-Journal says key legislators have said is unlikely to pass.
If it doesn’t, Beshear told the legislature it would have to find other ways to cut the budget by more than $850 million in the next two years.
“Gaming revenue is the only practical option to begin funding long-term priorities with recurring revenue,” he said last night to a joint session of the general assembly.
His proposed $18.4 billion budget includes no tax increases or wide layoffs of state employees, but Beshear said, “if the legislature chooses not to go in that direction in terms of gaming revenues they have other options. There are tax increases, there are more cuts, there is hoping and praying that we get more federal assistance, but that’s about it.”
Another option is to seek statewide approval of a constitutional amendment, but Kentucky tracks have rejected that idea as taking too long, although it has bipartisan legislative support. They prefer statutory decree, rather than the lengthy and chancy route of voter approval.
(Harness Tracks of America)