March 5, 2007 Rep. Jeff Colyer, MD 785/296-7667 PEGGY MAST, 785/296-7685
Several counties had already had non-binding votes on the wishes of the citizens involving their views on casino gambling in their locations. The bill exempts the necessity to have another "legal" vote on the issue for those counties who have already had a non-binding vote. It makes Kansas the first state in the nation to have state owned casinos. The jury is still out as to who will be sued if damage or harm is done on those properties. There were lots of concerns about the amendment and very few answers. After is was voted onto the bill, the person who carried the bill happily went to the mike and stated that it was time to spend the money. Many of us started to offer amendments that would place the dollars in places that we felt there were good causes, but each amendment was voted down. Individuals who had concerns about problems that could occur from the expansion offered amendments that would call for accountability or protection for consumers, but they too were rejected. There were a certain group of people who had agreed ahead of time that they would not allow anything to change the content of the bill. A representative from the Saline County area had made a comment at the mike that his area had not been included in the "deal". He was a strong advocate for the bill and so I had an amendment drafted that would include his area for a casino. The amendment reads: "and (4) the north central Kansas gaming zone, which consists of Saline County." As I expected, the representative voted against the amendment and it was defeated as well. The accusation that was made against my amendment at Eggs and Issues by a young woman who works in the Capitol was that I had carried an amendment that would have placed casinos in every county. That is untrue. I have a copy of the amendment and would be happy to forward it to anyone who is interested. I think that it is fair for those of you who want casino gambling in Kansas to know that the bill gives less to Kansas than the receipts to many other recently approved gaming states. The current tax rate summary is as follows: Maine-61%, Rhode Island-60%, Pennsylvania - 52% +$50 million privilege fee, Florida - 50% and Kansas 22%. It seems obvious that the person who wrote the amendment was a strong advocate for the future casino. There has been a lot of pressure to push for casinos in Kansas and a lot of money has been spent on lobbyists to get it done. Kansas now has 20 full time lobbyists for gambling. Thanks for all of you who took the time to read this lengthy explanation and who showed up to learn about this at Eggs and Issues. I promised there that if I was in error I would publicly apologize. I did not tell an untruth. I would like to ask Ms. Fowler to make a public apology to me for making a statement about my actions that was totally untrue. I look forward to talking with any of you who are interested in more information on the topic or who wish to express your views on this.
Sincerely,
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