Guest Article:
Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear’s last hopes of pushing his pro-casino bill through the legislature seem all but lost this week, as Hastings Wyman of the Southern Political Report notes. Holding a press conference on Monday, Beshear made a final, yet seemingly hopeless plea for the passage of his bill.
Wyman reports, “’I don’t see any hope at all for [the governor’s proposal],’ says Kentucky Roll Call editor Lowell Reese, who covers the legislature up close. The governor’s one hope says Reese – and a small one at that – is that when the House and Senate conferees try to iron out differences in their recently passed budget bills, they will come up against the hard truth of not enough revenue.”
Beshear’s promise of up to $500 million in new state revenue apparently isn’t enough incentive for the House to vote to pass his bill. Because Beshear’s bill is a constitutional amendment his almost fifty pledges falls short of the required sixty votes for passage. Wyman relays that “House Speaker Jody Richards says he wants 62 pledges before he’ll bring it to a vote, to provide a safety margin.”
With the state legislature’s adjournment drawing near, Beshear’s casino hopes seem to be all but lost—a dangerous failed promise from his victorious Gubernatorial campaign.
