GOP senators seek special session
HARRISBURG – Three Senate Republicans are calling for lawmakers to return weeks early from summer recess to come to an agreement on needed fixes to the state’s gambling law. Sens. Jane Orie, John Rafferty Jr. and Robert Regola III are asking Gov. Ed Rendell to call a special session on gambling reform for late August or early September, similar to the recent one that handled the politically tricky issue of property tax relief.
The senators say fixes to the state’s two-year-old gambling law are essential – including a complete ban on public officials owning stakes in gambling operators – before the first set of licenses to operate slots parlors are handed out to racetracks, expected in late September. The Legislature is on an abbreviated fall schedule because of elections.
But Rendell spokeswoman Kate Philips said the governor has no plans to call a special session on gambling reform.
“We’re confident the Legislature can get it done in the regular session,” she said. “There’s no need for it.”
The call for a special session was spurred on after a recent showdown in the Senate, in which Democrats held up final passage of the state budget as an ultimately unsuccessful tool to get a gambling reform bill passed.
The bill has been bouncing between the two legislative chambers since last fall, but its history goes back to 2004, when Rendell vetoed a similar bill because of certain provisions he didn’t like.
Orie, a Pittsburgh Republican, said a special session is needed to produce a focused conversation limited to gambling reform and not the myriad of other issues lawmakers have sought to include in the bill that make it more complicated and weighed down.
Senate Bill 862 started out as five pages but has been amended to 148 pages long.
Among the reforms are eliminating the loophole that allows public officials and their families to own up to a 1 percent stake in gambling operations, gives the state attorney general power to investigate and prosecute gambling-related crimes and provides for the removal of gaming board members for misconduct or criminal offenses.
“There are some good reforms in it and some things in here are politically motivated and serve as extraneous matters dealing with gaming matters,” said Orie. “I accept gaming is here, but I want to make sure Pennsylvania has in place a gaming law that is free of political influence, free of corruption and free of individuals profiteering.”
But an aide to Sen. Vince Fumo said Republicans had a chance to do gambling reform before the start of summer session when the senator pushed for a vote.
“I wonder why they have now come to the conclusion we should have dealt with gambling,” said Fumo’s spokesman Gary Tuma.
Tuma also said the senator would support a special session only if lawmakers forgo per diems and mileage reimbursements that will cost taxpayers extra money.
One of the extraneous issues Orie mentioned was a Fumo proposal to limit the power of Philadelphia zoning laws on the placement of casinos in the city. Senate Republicans complained then that they didn’t have enough time to review that proposal and others that were to be included as amendments to the gambling reform bill.
“I think we just got too jammed up at the end of the budget session,” said Bucks County Sen. Tommy Tomlinson, a Republican.
“There were too many things going on and not everybody could focus enough on the details of that.”
Tomlinson said he doesn’t agree with his fellow Republicans on the need for a special session, saying lawmakers agree on most of the gambling fixes. “I don’t see why we couldn’t come back in the fall and just address it and deal with it,” he said.
“Certainly, we have the remaining part of the summer to re-familiarize ourselves with it.”
Special sessions, which limit debate to a certain defined topic, can nevertheless become weighted down with many proposals.
Regola said, “That may happen, too. But the real intent is, let’s get a good packet here, let’s get good reform so we’re not embarrassed down the road.”
Alison Hawkes can be reached at 717-705-6330 or ahawkes@calkins-media.com.