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Sponsors kill video-lottery bill
Denver, CO - May 10, 2011 - The sponsors of a bill to add video lottery machines to two Colorado racetracks killed their bill in the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee on Monday. Sens. Lois Tochtrop, D-Thornton, and Mary Hodge, D-Brighton, co-sponsors of Senate Bill 233, said they weren’t able to find support for the bill, which they designed to benefit higher education. SB 233 would have allowed both Arapahoe Park, and a proposed racetrack at the Colorado State Fairgrounds in Pueblo, to operate as many as 2,500 of the slot machine-like devices. That revenue would have been taxed at 30 percent, and the bill could have raised as much as $40.5 million a year for financial aid at Colorado public colleges. But the state’s three gaming towns and public-safety officials, who said they had seen and opposed this idea before, immediately opposed the bill. Former Gov. Roy Romer vetoed a similar proposal in 1997, and 81 percent of statewide voters rejected the idea of putting the machines at racetracks in 2003. The co-sponsors said both higher education and the horse racing industry will continue to suffer without SB 233 passing. Higher-education funding is being cut by $36 million in next fiscal year’s budget, and Arapahoe Park is the only horse racetrack left in the state. Tochtrop promised that proponents would try to bring the bill back next year. “I am concerned that we are going to lose an industry in this state and that the [horse] breeders are going to leave,” Tochtrop said. “I hope that we can work on this issue and bring it back, because not only does it help jobs, but it helps our children who are having a difficult time with tuition.” But opponents said the bill would have done more damage than good. Katy Atkinson, spokeswoman for the Colorado Gaming Association, said the bill would have taken millions of dollars in revenue from gaming towns whose tax revenue funds community colleges, tourism marketing and specified industries, such as bioscience. She also said it would have been illegal, as the Colorado Constitution requires voter approval for gaming expansion. Chrissy Faraci, a lobbyist with David J. Cole & Associates Inc. of Denver who was part of the opposition effort, added that law-enforcement officials from around Arapahoe Park came out against the bill too, noting they would have received no local-impact funds to help them. Atkinson said she hoped the bill wouldn’t come back again. Read more: Denver Business Journal |
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