House shoots down gaming proposals

The General Assembly has again rejected a proposal to install slot machines at Indiana's two racetracks. Under House Bill 1077, drafted by state Rep. Eric Gutwein, R-Rensselaer, tax revenues generated from the slots would have been funneled into county governments to ease property taxes. \nUnder the plan, licensing fees and a 32 percent wager tax would have brought in $292 million to the state along with more than $157 million annually, according to a press release from Gutwein's office. The legislation would have annually distributed $500,000 earmarked for tax relief to all non-gaming counties and $25 million to the Indiana State Department of Agriculture to further economic development. \nChristina Nash, Gutwein's press secretary, said the bill is effectively dead. The Committee on Public Policy and Veterans Affairs has refused to give it a hearing, she said. Similar legislation, clamored for by the ailing horse racing industry, has failed during the past four legislative sessions.\nBecause of rising costs and reduced purses, both Hoosier Park in Anderson and Indiana Downs in Shellbyville have been in the red since 2003, according to company figures. Hoosier Park reported a loss of more than $1 million in 2004 and has not since made a mortgage payment to its majority owner, Churchill Downs Inc. Indiana Downs lost more than $2 million during the same fiscal year and more than $3 million in 2003.\nRick Moore, Hoosier Park's president and general manager, declined to comment on how much longer the track can keep afloat in the tide of red ink.\nThe downturn has also adversely impacted horse breeders and related supporting businesses, such as veterinary practices and feed stores. According to a 2003 study provided by the Indiana Horse Racing and Breeding Coalition, an Indiana racehorse accrues $4,136 in costs while only bringing in $3,017 in revenue. \nThe industry views wagering as the only viable option it has to make it through this financial rough patch. In trying to sell the idea to legislators, the coalition pointed to the state's $645 million deficit.\n"Government supplies a number of services to the state," said Michael Brown, spokesman for the coalition. "Taxes is one of the ways we have to pay for them, and most aren't in favor of high taxes.\n"Gaming serves as voluntary taxes -- no one pays them who doesn't want to pay them."\nBoth House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, and Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Garton, R-Columbus, have repeatedly ruled out any expansion of gaming to deal with the state's budget woes. A Democrat-sponsored slot machine bill that would have increased funding to public education made it to a vote on the Senate floor last year only to be voted down along party lines. \nBosma said no bill expanding gambling in Indiana would likely pass the House. He told The Associated Press slots would place restaurants and other businesses at an unfair disadvantage. Other Republican lawmakers criticized the proposal as exploitative of the poor. \nBrown acknowledges that legislative relief for the horse racing industry is a long shot.\n"We were hopeful going into this session, and it's a bill that would have enriched not only the horse industry, but all Hoosiers," he said. "It's like a tree -- the branches are the more prominent race tracks, but the roots are the breeders, the farmers, the trainers, the farriers, the tack and harness shops, the truck and trailer sales, the land contractors"