Vote yes for better schools. But better than what? Not much better, apparently, than what they've got in
Louisiana.
The deal proposed by South Florida's parimutuels, and their militia of lobbyists and political advisors and
publicists hired to push Tuesday's referendum, would allocate 33 percent of the take from racino slots to the
state to spend for education.
Some deal. As The Herald's Jack Dolan and Lesley Clark reported Wednesday, 33 percent would be the
stingiest return among any of the states that allow slots and video gambling machines at their parimutuels.
But here are words a voter ought to ponder before going to the polls on Tuesday: "even worse than Louisiana."
Racinos in Louisiana return 36 percent of their slot machine take to state government. And that's just not any
old state. Louisiana is the unrivaled bastion of bad government, crippled by corruption and influence peddling
and politicians utterly beholden to sleazy business interests.
Yet utterly inept Louisiana managed to wrangle a 36 percent deal out of the parimutuels. Which would make
Florida's purported 33 percent worse than Louisiana.
I figured I better call Edwin Edwards, who knows a thing or two about gambling deals. Edwards was elected
governor of Louisiana four times and spent most of his last term, from 1992 to 1996, cobbling together the
legislation and arranging the deals that brought a land-bound casino to New Orleans and put 15 casino
riverboats on Louisiana waterways.
THE OLD GUV
Of all the high-rolling politicians in America, Old Guv Edwards would know how the slot machine proposal in
Florida would stack up.
Unfortunately, Gov. Edwards couldn't come to the telephone Wednesday. His jailers at the federal prison in
Oakdale, La., indicated that Edwin was preoccupied with his other obligations. Edwards, 72, has a few more
years to serve in a 10-year federal sentence for a conviction on bribery charges. Edwards, his son, a state
senator, some local businessmen and a member of the state gambling commission were convicted back in
2000 on bribery charges.
Evidence presented at their trial indicated that gambling interests desperate for one of those lucrative new
casino licenses had paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes. Some paid in bundles of cash. Other
bribes were disguised when gambling officials carefully lost huge amounts of money in the high stakes private
poker games Edwards staged at the governor's mansion.
So Edwards won't be available for comment until 2012.
ABOUT WEST VIRGINIA
There's always West Virginia, another state that has suffered a few problems in self-governance. At one time
in the 1980s, a former governor, a former speaker of the House of Delegates and a former president of the
state Senate were all serving time on corruption charges in a federal pen. So consider this. West Virginia's
racinos pay 57 percent of their take from slots to the state.
Imagine that Florida: Worse than West Virginia.
Don't forget Rhode Island. Federal prosecutors in Rhode Island announced Tuesday that they intend to
re-try officials from the Lincoln Park racino who have been charged with trying to slip the speaker of the
house in Rhode Island $4 million to get state approval for more video gambling terminals at their racetrack.
Rhode Island, by the way, gets 60 percent of the take on racino gambling machines. Consider that Florida:
Worse than Rhode Island.
Worse than New York. Worse than Pennsylvania. Worse than Delaware. The paltry 33 percent Florida
parimutuels hope to ram through the Legislature raises some troubling questions about the slot proposal. If
their interest was truly to improve state schools, wouldn't the backers of Yes for Better Schools be pushing
for a deal comparable to, say, West Virginia or Rhode Island?
Otherwise, voters might suspect they ought to call themselves: Yes for Worse than Louisiana.