Governor will also attend 2 fund-raisers for Democrats

Monday, November 10, 2003

By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau

HARRISBURG -- Gov. Ed Rendell is heading west Wednesday to talk about two of his favorite subjects: electing Democrats to the state Legislature and putting slot machines at Pennsylvania racetracks.

Rendell will be the keynote speaker Wednesday morning at the final session of a three-day conference called "Racino 2003," being held at Mountaineer Racetrack and Gaming Resort in Chester, W.Va. In addition to thoroughbred racing, Mountaineer, which is less than an hour west of Downtown Pittsburgh, has 3,000 slot machines and draws a lot of out-of-staters.

"He'll talk about the differences between states that have legalized [slots] gambling and the states without it," said Rendell spokeswoman Kate Philips. "He sees this as an economic issue. Pennsylvania is losing hundreds of millions of dollars each year to states with legalized gaming."

"Racino" is a new term for gambling venues that combine racetracks and casinos, usually with slot machines.

Two of the states that have them are West Virginia and Delaware, which border Pennsylvania and attract thousands of Pennsylvanians across the state line every year. Many Pittsburgh-area people play the slots at Mountaineer in the Northern Panhandle and at the Wheeling Downs greyhound racing track in Wheeling, W.Va., which hurts business at The Meadows harness track in Washington County.

During last year's gubernatorial campaign and since taking office in January, Rendell has pushed to legalize slot machines both at state racetracks and at two non-track locations, one site in Philadelphia and another in the Pittsburgh area. He sees it as a way to raise up to $1 billion in additional revenue for the state, which he would use to reduce school property taxes.

After the racino conference, Rendell plans to attend political fund-raising events in Pittsburgh Wednesday night, one for the state House Democrats and one for state Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park.

"I'm still about $16,000 in debt from last year's Senate campaign. That's a lot of money for me," said Ferlo, a longtime City Council member who became a senator in January. "The governor and I campaigned together last fall throughout the North Side and the Allegheny Valley communities and the rest of the district, so I appreciate the fact he's willing to come by and be supportive."

Rendell wants to elect more Democrats in next year's elections for the General Assembly, where Republicans have controlled both chambers since 1994. So far this year many GOP legislators have balked at enacting Rendell's new education initiatives, economic development measures and gambling expansion ideas.

Rendell proved his fund-raising ability last year, when he amassed a $42 million war chest that he used to defeat Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Fisher. He also helped raise funds for some of the successful Democratic candidates in Tuesday's election, including Allegheny County Executive-elect Dan Onorato, Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street, and new state Supreme Court Justice Max Baer of Mt. Lebanon.

Rendell also is eager to lobby for racinos in Pennsylvania, so racetracks in the state can better compete with the four racetracks in West Virginia that have had slot machines since the mid-1990s. But why would a state that already has racinos want to hear from the governor of a state that doesn't?

"It's not a Mountaineer conference or a West Virginia conference," said Mountaineer spokeswoman Tamara Pettit. "It's being sponsored by Global Gaming Business, a publication for the gaming industry," and several hundred executives of casino companies and racetracks, as well as state lottery officials, are expected to attend.

"There's a lot of interest in hearing the insight of the chief executive of a state that's considering racinos," she said.

When he was invited several months ago, Rendell had high hopes that he'd have a success story to tell about Pennsylvania by now, that slot machines would have been approved for the state's four present racetracks and as many as four new tracks.

But it hasn't happened. Like many of Rendell's other priorities, such as new educational programs, expanded forms of legalized gambling have been tied up in disputes in the state House and Senate.

The lack of action is curious because, as Philips noted, public opinion polls have consistently shown that 60 percent to 70 percent of Pennsylvania residents strongly support putting slot machines at racetracks and possibly at nontrack locations, such as metropolitan Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Both the House and Senate have actually approved slot legalization measures, but they differ in two key respects: The House wants 11 sites, nine at tracks and two at nontracks, while the Senate won't approve more than eight slot machine locations, all at current or future tracks.

Rendell "thinks a reasonable solution could be hammered out fairly quickly if he and the four legislative caucuses sit down together," Philips said. "Every day we don't have expanded gambling, gaming dollars are going to other states and Pennsylvanians who desperately want property tax relief aren't getting it."

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