Topeka Capital-Journal, The: [ LEGISLATURE ]

LEGISLATURE

Slots are a risky, ineffective long-term fix for a short-term problem. Are lawmakers sure they want to do this thing?

A shaky bet

You pass by a blackjack table. You impulsively stop and think about putting down a $100 bet. Just before you do, something in the back of your mind tells you it's a bad idea.

Chances are, it probably is.

Yet, that's pretty much what the Kansas House has done by approving a bill Saturday that would expand gambling in the state by allowing slot machines at the five pari-mutuel tracks here plus one undetermined "at large" site.

You really have to wonder if it's a good idea, whether there was enough open debate about it --- and if lawmakers realize just what a can of worms it is that they may be opening.

Once opened, the can will be next to impossible to close, too.

Thus far, House members are loath to increase any taxes at all to raise the remaining $290 million necessary to finish closing the state's $700-million-plus budget gap. On Saturday, House members declined some sure bets --- modest hikes in sales taxes, the estate tax on distant relatives and a cigarette tax that not only would have raised more than $100 million but might also have saved some lives by encouraging some folks to quit smoking. Instead, they said yes to a shaky bet. Slot machines won't get the state much immediate help, and they are indiscriminate money suckers: They take money from people who may not be able to afford it.

So House members said no to a tax that may save lives, and said yes to an expanded gambling bill that may ruin some. Hmm...

It was done by the slimmest of margins, too: The expanded gambling bill won the minimum 63 votes required for passage in the 125-member House.

Is this really something we want to do by a narrow margin, seemingly at the last minute, without having really talked much about it during the session --- and when the revenue won't even kick in in time to erase the temporary budget shortfall? And while the effects of expanded gambling --- which we may not even realize at this point - -- will far outlast this year's budget problems?

It sure seems impulsive and shortsighted. And it doesn't really even help much.

Certainly even the most conservative, no-new-tax lawmakers found cutting the state budget more difficult than they ever imagined. Everyone wants more efficiency and lower taxes, but the Kansas economy has been hurting, and it just so happens state government doesn't do a lot of unnecessary things. If lawmakers don't increase revenues, what are they going to cut? Education? Higher Education? Life-saving and life-extending services for the elderly and low- income? It just can't be done in many cases without actually becoming counterproductive. When you cut higher education, for instance, you risk hurting the very education that will help the state's economy in the years to come. When you cut services that keep seniors in their homes longer, you risk costing the state more in nursing home costs.

So, after having passed a $4.4 billion budget that cuts what it reasonably can, lawmakers are still staring at a nearly $300 million shortfall.

It appears as if House members are proposing what they think is an easy way out --- while oddly eschewing sure-thing revenue producers.

But is it truly the easy way out? Of all the ways the Legislature has considered to raise more in revenues, few have the potential to change the social fabric of the state as does expanded gambling. It isn't just the 3 to 5 percent of gamblers who, experts say, are most vulnerable to addictive gambling. There are a host of worries, including youth gambling, an economic drain on entertainment dollars, encouraging the something-for-nothing culture --- and just the concern of making it too easy to gamble.

One Topeka business owner is very concerned about the latter. The business owner, who asked to remain anonymous, has seen first-hand the seductive nature of casino gambling, and how it entices people into doing things they might not otherwise have done. He's worried about people losing homes and jobs and loved ones because of it.

"I just think they're making it too easy for people to lose their money," the owner said. "I think what we've got is enough."

The bill, which must still be considered by the Senate, would allow slot machines at the five pari-mutuel race tracks in Kansas: The Woodlands in Kansas City, Camptown Greyhound Park near Pittsburg, Wichita Greyhound Park, Eureka Downs in Greenwood County and Anthony Downs in Harper County --- but only if voters in the county in question approved of it.

It's a long-term bet to solve a short-term financial problem. And its ability to solve the problem is questionable: Even if the state's 26.5 percent share of the take from the slots were to yield $80 million or more as supporters claim, the state's current financial woes may already have passed by then.

This bill should not become law because it will help the state out of its financial problems. It won't. The only way this bill should become law is if it's a good idea --- in either good times or bad.

That's debatable. But at this point, the debate hasn't really taken place.

Nor are slot machines the way to get yourself out of a $300 million hole.