Supporters of casinos in the state will have to wait another year. Georgia’s House Speaker announced Monday that legislation to legalize them would not get a vote during this year’s legislative session.
Speaker David Ralston postponed two pieces of casino legislation, preventing a House vote, effectively ending chances of the issue moving forward this year.
HR 807 would have asked voters to amend the state constitution to legalize up to four casinos, two of which would be in Metro Atlanta. HB 677, also sponsored by Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Savannah, would have set the rules and guidelines for how casino companies would qualify for a license and would have dictated that at least 90 percent of taxes and fees from the casinos go to fund the HOPE scholarship.
Ralston’s announcement came on a key day in the legislature, known as Crossover Day, the last day of the session for a bill to move from one chamber to the other for consideration without some type of political maneuvering.
During a break in the action in the House on Monday, Ralston met with Reps. Randy Nix, R-LaGrange, and Paul Battles, R-Cartersville, both pastors, to discuss the pending casino legislation.
Ralston initially postponed a vote on the bills on Friday, although the House Rules Committee voted earlier in the day to put both pieces of casino legislation on the debate calendar. He sent lawmakers home Friday instructing them to attend church and talk to their constituents before they voted on the casino legislation.
“I want to thank you for doing that. I did that,” Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, told House members Monday afternoon. “I have found that the people I have talked with care deeply about the character and image of our state. The faith community felt like they had not been heard, and I want them to feel like they have been heard.”
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