Attempts to get a slots-for-scholarships proposal onto the March primary ballot for Ohioans to vote on appear to have gone bust.
Efforts by slots supporters to bypass the typical rules for working on legislation appear to have failed because of disagreements on how to spend the money. Democrats favored using proceeds to pay for scholarships and school improvements, while House Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, preferred a plan that would help repeal the extra penny that’s been added to the sales tax, according to local media reports.
Supporters were trying to get Senate Joint Resolution 8 passed yesterday because the House and Senate might not be in session today to allow state legislators to attend a meeting of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators in Houston, according to a local media article.
Andy Spencer, legislative aid to the proposal’s primary sponsor, Sen. Louis Blessing, R-Cincinnati, said the House Republican caucus decided not to push the proposal through.
Legislators in favor of the plan were trying to get the House to suspend the legislative rules that require bills to be assigned to committee before being voted on, so that they could vote on the proposal immediately, in order to get it passed in time to be placed on the March 2 primary ballot. Suspending legislative rules requires two-thirds of the House to vote in favor of suspension.
Blessing tried to come up with compromises on the initial slots-for-scholarship plan that passed through the Senate, including one that would pay off the extra penny on the sales tax until it was repealed in 2005 and then put slot proceeds toward scholarships.
He also suggested in a local media article that there was the possibility of placing virtual casinos at off-track locations in Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland .
Rep. Kenneth Carano, D-Youngstown, said that before states other than Nevada began to allow gambling, Ohio was the third largest gambling state, according to the FBI.
“The fact of the matter is, the state of Ohio is a gambling state,” he said.
Carano said eventually a slots proposal will pass in Ohio.
“This will happen. This is going to happen,” he said. “Somewhere along the line we will have enough votes in both the House and the Senate to pass this.”
The slots proposal follows in the footsteps of the last attempt to legalize a form of gambling in Ohio. In 1996, a ballot amendment to legalize casino gambling was defeated 62 percent to 38 percent, said Rob Wolgate, a staff member at Ohio Roundtable, a conservative research forum.
