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Sunday, July 20, 2003

By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Don't get all giddy yet about pumping quarters into one-armed bandits in Pennsylvania.

	How they voted How Western Pennsylvania House members voted on House Bill 623, which authorizes 11 slot machine locations in Pennsylvania: REPUBLICANS Jeff Habay -- No John Maher -- Yes Daryl Metcalfe -- No Mark Mustio -- No Jess Stairs -- No Tom Stevenson -- Yes Mike Turzai -- No DEMOCRATS Paul Costa --- Yes Peter Daley -- Yes Tony DeLuca -- Yes Frank Dermody -- Yes H. William DeWeese --Yes Michael Diven -- No Dan Frankel --Yes Marc Gergely -- Yes Victor Lescovitz --absent David Levdansky -- Yes Joseph Markosek -- Yes John Pallone -- Yes Joseph Petrarca -- No Tom Petrone -- Yes Frank Pistella -- Yes Joe Preston -- Yes Harry Readshaw -- Yes Ken Ruffing -- Yes James Shaner -- Yes Tim Solobay -- Yes Tom Tangretti -- Yes Guy Travaglio -- Yes Mike Veon -- Yes Don Walko -- Yes Jake Wheatley -- Yes

Though a bill legalizing slot machines was a winner yesterday in the state House of Representatives, state senators said it could be a loser there.

At about 2:30 a.m. yesterday, House members capped 12 hours of long-winded, raucous and sometimes angry debate by voting to allow slot machines in the Keystone State.

Immediately afterward, powerful senators said they plan to defeat the bill. Aides to Sens. Robert Mellow, D-Lackawanna, and Vincent Fumo, D-Philadelphia, went so far as to pronounce the House measure "dead on arrival" in the Senate.

By a vote of 120-81, House members authorized as many as 11 slot machine casinos, including nine at licensed horse racetracks and two in free-standing parlors. One would be in Philadelphia and the other in the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is Allegheny and six surrounding counties.

"This is a monumental change," said one slots supporter, state Rep. Tom Petrone, D-West End. "We're in the home stretch."

He said horse tracks and the horse-breeding industry in Pennsylvania are suffering, as state residents go to West Virginia or Delaware tracks or to Atlantic City casinos to wager.

House Democratic Leader H. William DeWeese, D-Waynesburg, said state residents spend $3 billion a year at out-of-state casinos.

"We need to keep that money here and use it to lower property taxes," he said.

Opponents of the bill agreed that it would create monumental change in Pennsylvania, but not, they said, for the better.

"It's bad public policy and it's the wrong thing to do," said Rep. Fred McIlhattan, R-Clarion County, fearing casinos will prompt an upsurge in personal bankruptcies, family dissolutions, crime and gambling addiction.

In an earlier draft of the legislation, one slots parlor was slated for some unspecified spot in Downtown Pittsburgh or on a riverboat.

But DeWeese widened the geographical scope for the parlor, saying that small rural counties such as Greene and Fayette, which he represents, should have an opportunity to get it. DeWeese even mentioned one potential location, the Nemacolin Woodlands resort in Fayette County.

In writing the House bill, one of its chief authors, House Speaker John M. Perzel, a Philadelphia Republican, managed to upset state senators of both parties. Even Senate Democrats, all 21 of whom voted for a different version of the slots bill in late June, were angry about the House version.

J.P. Kurish, an aide to Mellow, and Gary Tuma, a spokesman for Fumo, said the measure will not carry in the Senate as a result.

	Related article: House passes tax reform, school district funding

"Senate Democrats cannot support the current version of the bill," Kurish and Tuma said in a joint statement. The House bill "unfortunately eliminates many of the safeguards to protect the public from fraud and corruption, and has substantially weakened the ability of state regulators to ensure that gambling in Pennsylvania is run cleanly and in a manner that serves the public interest."

The bill approved by the Senate permitted up to eight slots casinos, all of them at state racetracks -- the four existing tracks, including The Meadows in Washington County -- and up to four additional tracks.

Perzel wanted to broaden the measure to benefit Philadelphia. The House bill earmarks $17 million a year in revenue to finance a $500 million expansion of the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.

It also includes $15 million a year to build for a new arena for the Pittsburgh Penguins and a hotel near the convention center.

Fumo is angry that some provisions he put into the bill were taken out by Perzel.

One was a prohibition on slot machine operators or track owners making political contributions to state or local politicians. Another was a prohibition on sports team owners having a stake in racetracks or casinos.

The House bill also weakens the governor's influence on a new State Gaming Fund Board, which would control tax revenues from casinos. Under the bill, the governor would be limited to one appointment on a five-member board. The Senate had given the governor three on a seven-member board.

"Make no mistake," said Kurish and Tuma, gambling expansion, if not done correctly, can be a detriment. If not structured properly and tightly regulated, gambling can exert a corruptive influence on society, they said. Senate Democrats said they will do their best to prevent that.

Sens. Mellow and Fumo said they will not allow Senate Democrats to be targeted as bill killers simply because they will not rubber stamp the House version.

Also unhappy are some Senate Republicans. Only six of the 29 GOP members voted for the bill the Senate passed in late June. Most Senate Republicans don't want to expand gambling at all, and two of those who voted for the Senate version said they won't go beyond the eight locations they accepted last month.

Without support from Senate Democrats or Republicans, the House-passed bill would seem to have little chance when the Senate reconvenes July 28.

But Perzel and House Majority Leader Samuel H. Smith, R-Punxsutawney, profess not to be overly concerned by criticism coming from the Senate. Smith this week called some of the Senate comments posturing. Perzel said the House proposal will raise about $1 billion in revenue from the $50 million, one-time fees to be paid by casino companies and from a 34 percent tax on profits at the 11 slot locations.

Perzel said many homeowners across the state want the school property tax relief that the $1 billion in gambling proceeds would provide. He said that if senators want to be politically responsible for denying property tax relief to state residents, then it's their call.

Perzel conceded that the House bill "isn't the prettiest thing in the world, but it's the only way we can come up with property tax cuts."

Gov. Ed Rendell also supports the House bill, and if he exerts his political influence on senators, he may sway some votes. By providing funds for the Philadelphia convention center expansion and the Pittsburgh hockey arena, the slots bill would free several hundred million dollars in the state capital budget. That money could then be promised for projects around the state in an effort to get senators to support the gambling legislation.

If the slots bill is rejected by the Senate, it will likely go to a House-Senate conference committee in an attempt to work out a compromise.

Legislators said resolution of the issue is unlikely until sometime in August.

Correction/Clarification: (Published July 22, 2003) State Rep. Marc Gergely, D-White Oak, voted in favor of House Bill 623, which authorizes 11 slot machine locations in Pennsylvania. His name was omitted from a "How They Voted" list Sunday.