INDIANAPOLIS — The gaming bill that state senators sent to the House of Representatives eventually will have to go back to the Senate.
The House Public Policy Committee removed several pieces of legislation from Senate Bill 528, including those that would have decreased the revenue that local governments received from casino taxes.
“The bill that passed the Senate was structured to keep the state’s income steady, and would have reduced the local revenue coming from casinos,” said Rep. Mark Messmer, R-Jasper, a member of the committee. “So the only one that would have been helped was the state. The bill kind of missed the mark.”
SB528 was supposed to help state casinos be more competitive in an atmosphere where gaming in bordering states is increasing. The Senate’s version of the bill would have expanded the services at the state’s two racinos, which are horse racing tracks that have electronic games, in Shelbyville and Anderson. Messmer said that just takes customers away from the other casinos in the state.
The committee also removed that plan. “Every year that I’ve been here, they’ve asked for table gaming,” Messmer said of the racinos. “And every year it gets voted down. If we increase table gaming in Shelbyville and Anderson, it will come as a loss to the other gaining venues.”
Plus, he said, the bill was structured to decrease by various percentages the revenue counties receive from casinos. In 2012, Dubois County received $548,944 from the admissions tax revenue from French Lick Casino. Also last year, the county and its municipalities received a total of $248,147 from a $33 million pot of wagering taxes that is set aside for counties that don’t have a riverboat.
The public policy committee removed the reductions from the bill. “I thought it was important to keep the local funding in place,” Messmer said. “The rest of the committee felt the same.”
Sen. Richard Young, D-Milltown, said he was glad that the legislation to decrease local governments’ revenue was removed.
“Governments are already losing money. They depend on that revenue,” he said. “They already have plans for how that money will service their communities. To decrease that would put them in more of a bind than they are already.”
But, Young said, the bill is far from being a done deal. Because the bill has changed so much, if the House approves it, the bill will have to go back to the Senate for approval of the changes. “If the Senate doesn’t agree with the changes, the bill could go to a conference committee,” he said. The conference committee, which would include representatives of the Senate and House, then would negotiate the details of the bill.
“All or some of those parts could be restored into the bill. Or they could stay out. Or, no agreement could be reached, which means the bill would fail,” Young said. “There are many possible outcomes.”
As of now, SB528, which passed the public policy committee Thursday, is moving to another committee. The House Ways and Means Committee must also review and pass it because the bill affects revenue. If that committee approves it, the bill will go the House floor for a vote, something that has to be completed by April 15.
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