Rolling the dice on revenues

By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published August 26, 2007

To see expanded gambling as a way to plug holes in Florida's education budget is to ignore the lessons of the lottery and the voters' rejection of casinos. In his negotiations on gaming with the Seminole Tribe, Gov. Charlie Crist is closing his eyes to both.

Crist acknowledges he's mining for money to help spare schools as the state wrestles with a $1.1-billion shortfall in this year's budget. But he can't allow his approach to Indian gaming to be dictated solely by the bottom line. The reason to reach a compact with the Seminoles is as much to regulate and control gaming as it is to bring in revenue by taxing it.

The issue here is a 2004 constitutional amendment and a subsequent Broward County referendum that authorized Las Vegas-style slot machines for four parimutuel facilities in Broward. Under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, the state is then generally obliged to allow that type of gaming on tribal lands.

The federal edict, though, comes with an important footnote. The federal law clearly intends for such games to be authorized through a formal compact with the state, and a federal appeals court in Texas last week reaffirmed that measure of state control.

Crist, then, is playing from a strong hand. So why would he be willing to consider granting the Seminoles exclusive rights to run casino-style games, such as blackjack and roulette, that are banned elsewhere in the state? Voters have overwhelming rejected casino gambling the last three times it appeared on the ballot and only narrowly approved slot machines for no more than two counties.

Seminole attorney Barry Richard wants Crist to believe he must grant the tribe some new and exclusive gaming right in order to share in the revenues. But as recently as January, tribe attorneys were asking a federal judge to cut Crist out of the picture and force the U.S. Interior secretary to unilaterally impose a plan on Florida. That plan, most notably, envisioned only high-stakes slot machines.

The negotiating pressure on Crist seems largely self-generated. He has promised to keep public schools from suffering as a result of revenue declines and a "super exemption" he wants to give all property homeowners. A special session to consider cuts in this year's budget is scheduled for Sept. 18, and Crist has told reporters he wants to be able to bring his gambling compact money to the table.

Given the overly optimistic estimates of tax proceeds from the current Broward parimutuel slot machines, budget writers would be wise not to count too heavily on any form of gambling to save schools. Voters don't need reminding, either, that a state lottery that was sold as a way to enhance schools ended up serving only as a budgetary shell game and supplanting general tax dollars that had been spent on education.

In his haste, the governor also has skipped past the sticky question of authority. Can he, absent legislative or voter approval, sign a compact allowing new casino games? He said Thursday he would likely seek legislative approval, but he has done little to lay the groundwork for it.

Crist should be credited with tackling the issue of Indian gaming. The late Gov. Lawton Chiles was so personally opposed to gambling he walked away from a $200-million offer from the Seminoles to operate bingo-style slots. As a result, the tribes now run low-stakes slot operations in six counties, completely free from state regulation and revenue sharing.

If Chiles and former Gov. Jeb Bush were too stubborn to recognize regulatory reality, Crist seems too enamored with dollar signs. In his negotiations with the tribe, the people's governor should remember that voters have drawn a line with the types of gambling they will allow. He crosses it at his own peril.

[Last modified August 25, 2007, 22:04:04]