Shelby County lawmakers still are hoping live gaming is in the cards this year for Indiana Grand.
Senate Bill 528 goes before the full Indiana House of Representatives on Monday and is expected to pass and go back to a House committee for further discussion. The bill has been re-written several times throughout this session but currently mandates that the state's two racinos (both owned by the same company) pay $10 million in taxes to the state's racing and motorsports industry and removes a tax on casino-issued coupons. State Rep. Sean Eberhart, R-Shelbyville, told The Shelbyville News on Wednesday, a day after the House Ways and Means Committee voted 15-6 to pass this latest draft, that he's not pleased with these changes.
Earlier incarnations of the bill focused on what would have been two critical changes to Indiana's gaming industry, Shelbyville in particular, though both tenets have since been removed. First, the bill would have allowed riverboat casinos to move inland within a few miles of their current water-based locations; and second, most importantly to Shelby County, SB 528 would have allowed for live table gaming at Indiana's racinos.
...
Live table gaming is already allowed at the riverboat casinos, so why not the two inland racinos also? We can't agree that this is considered an expansion of gaming when it's already allowed at most of the casinos in the state.
Now, Centaur is getting help from friends in higher places. At right, see a letter from several Shelbyville- and Anderson-area lawmakers of both parties calling on Pence to return live table gaming to Senate Bill 528 in the next few weeks before the session ends. They claim 600 jobs and $10 million to $20 million in tax revenue could result from the addition.
"At a time when the state's unemployment rate is 8.5 percent, we must thoroughly examine and consider any proposal which could produce jobs," the letter says.
Hoosier Republican lawmakers -- from Pence at the top on down -- put job creation among their highest objectives.
"This issue represents one of the most significant job creation opportunities we've seen in many years," Eberhart said Wednesday.
He's right.
The weak logic being used by the opposition just doesn't add up. It's time for Hoosier lawmakers in the House to restore live table gaming to Senate Bill 528 and pass it on to the governor, who should see the sense in signing it.
http://www.shelbynews.com/articles/2013/04/12/opinion/doc5165e013d7c15796423588.txt
