No special session on gambling
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board
Copyright © 2009, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Tuesday December 15, 2009
Lawmakers are right that it's not the time to call a special legislative session to address gambling issues. But dealing with gambling, as Tallahassee must this coming spring, is long overdue.
It's not like gambling popped up overnight as either a business, entertainment form, potential state revenue source or public policy challenge. No, it's lawmakers who have been a collective passive-aggressive lot on this issue, and who have only taken it up as a priority because of the budgetary collapse they've had to deal with the past two years.
And yet, they've accomplished little, and settled even less. In the process, compacts negotiated by the governor with the Seminoles have come and gone by the wayside. The Legislature dithered even after voters approved a constitutional amendment five years ago, paving the way for casinos at Broward and Miami-Dade pari-mutuels.
So, 2010 maddeningly will find Florida without a blueprint or a plan to govern or gain from one of the hottest-growing entertainment businesses in the past decade. And you can lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of your state lawmakers, who will then blame each other.
Now that's leadership. Funny how state officials talk so much about attracting businesses to the state, but can't find a way to make a penny from a burgeoning business right under their noses.
Having procrastinated, lawmakers must make good in the spring session by approving a statewide comprehensive plan for gambling. That plan must accomplish several tasks:
It must decide which games will be reserved for the Seminole casinos and which will be open to full competition from non-tribal gambling operations.
It must decide which areas of the state will be given the option to permit additional gambling.
It must set aside a realistic expectation of what the state can expect in terms of taxes or revenues from exclusivity deals with the Seminoles.
Yes, it's a complicated process. But five years just to get to the point where the Legislature will make this a focus of its session?
That's inexcusable. The only thing that would be worse is if the 2010 session ends without a plan.
BOTTOM LINE: No more dithering. Put a plan together in the spring.