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Friday, March 6, 2009
State’s chips in hands of appointees
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The bid for video gambling in Underground Atlanta, an abominable proposal that should be summarily rejected by the Georgia Lottery Board, is a case study in why elected officials should choose their appointees carefully.
They’re the people who either advance, impede or invite distractions from a governor’s agenda.
Georgia is in the midst of a budget crunch. Gov. Sonny Perdue this week cut the estimate of revenues expected during the fiscal year that starts July 1 by $1.6 billion, from $20.2 billion to $18.6 billion. When more than $961 million in printing-press money coming from Washington and cutbacks, shifts and adjustments are factored in, the additional whack to be taken from agency budgets is $69 million.
It is worth noting, as an aside, that while Georgia wrestles with reduced agency budgets, the spendthrift Congress approves a $410 billion spending bill that increases funding for federal agencies by 8 percent. The major story of this legislative session, then, is the recession and the real prospects that Congress and the Obama administration could manage it into a depression.
The solution to every government’s financial difficulties is to set priorities, cut spending and adjust, as Perdue and others are doing.
The solution is not video poker. It is not casinos in Underground Atlanta. It is not exploiting the weaknesses and addictions of desperate Georgians for the benefit of a few lazy and greedy politicians.
It was no surprise this week that the Atlanta City Council voted 11-0 to embrace a proposal to bring 5,000 video gambling machines to Underground. The city’s cut would be $3 million a year in hotel-motel taxes from a 29-story hotel that is proposed, as well as a slice of the take from gambling. It is hard to imagine a vice that the City Council would not sanction on the promise that it would sustain its spending addiction.
The state, however, and the Georgia Lottery Corp.’s board in particular, have no incentive to feed Atlanta’s addiction — or to open Georgia to casino gambling.
Make no mistake. Allowing the Underground project opens all of Georgia to this blight.
Eight years ago, then-Gov. Roy Barnes led a crusade to prevent video gambling from seeping into Georgia after it had been banned in South Carolina. That state’s frustration in trying to regulate and contain video gambling over two decades finally led legislators to ban the machines outright. They can’t be regulated. South Carolina tried.
In 1993, it imposed an eight-machine limit on any place of business. The response? Operators set up shell corporations, with dozens “owning” eight machines in a single location. In 1991, the state had 11,512 machines. At the end of 1993, after the regulation attempt, it had 24,084 in 6,000 locations.
Barnes and the General Assembly cracked down and outlawed them, effective Jan. 1, 2002. The lottery board does, however, have authority to grant Underground operators that permission.
Underground-only gambling won’t contain it, either. About the time of Barnes’ crusade, a small, federally recognized Oklahoma Indian tribe with roots in Georgia and Alabama, the Kialegee, made overtures about bringing casino gambling to Hancock County. Permission to create the “reservation” comes from the U.S. secretary of the interior.
A prime consideration is what the state has done to create a conducive environment. The fact that Georgia operates a lottery is one strike against it. But — and this may have been the state’s saving grace — it does not allow casino gambling, nor does it allow devices that mimic it. Commercial gambling is illegal.
Perdue has made it clear he doesn’t want casino gambling on his watch. The lottery board meets again April 30. If it met today, the Underground proposals would be easily defeated.
The board, however, may be hoping, naively, that the matter will just go away. It won’t. It’s like Sunday alcohol sales. It’s a distraction.
Here’s the lesson, then, for future governors and for others who appoint members to boards and commissions: They’re making public policy while you’re putting out fires elsewhere. You should know, therefore, that every decision appointees make will be consistent with the values you hold and the legacy you wish to leave.
Call the vote on casino gambling in Underground.
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