Thursday, May 15, 2003 | 9:24 a.m.
OLYMPIA, Wash. -- With back-room negotiations over the state's budget under way, non-tribal gambling interests have raised the stakes of their slot-machine proposal, offering the state a bigger cut along with sweeteners for local governments.
But the idea still faces stiff opposition from antigambling lawmakers and Indian tribes anxious to protect their exclusive hold on the machines.
Earlier versions of the Entertainment Industry Coalition's proposal to scatter thousands more gambling machines around the state have gone nowhere in the Legislature, despite House Democrats' feverish hunt for new money to help fill a $2.6 billion budget hole.
So the new version offered Tuesday boosts state and local governments' take from 25 percent of the profits to 40 percent -- a cut the proposal's backers say would add up to more than $200 million for the upcoming two-year budget cycle and more than $600 million in the next budget.
That $200 million-plus is roughly the amount of new money House negotiators are looking for as they try to agree on a budget deal with Senate Republicans, who aren't enthused about the House's proposed tax increases on candy, liquor and cigarettes. On Monday the Legislature began a special session to balance the budget.
Lincoln Ferris -- the lead lobbyist for the alliance of non-tribal minicasinos, bars, taverns, bowling alleys and bingo halls -- called the increased cut for the state "a flat-out political move."
"It isn't going to fly unless it generates more money for the state," Ferris said.
The state's general fund would get 33 percent of the net -- about $345 million per year once the 18,900 machines -- the same number currently operating in tribal casinos -- were in operation, the coalition estimated. Local governments would get 4.5 percent -- about $44 million per year. Another 2 percent would go to replace the money cities lost when the motor vehicle excise tax was repealed three years ago, while .5 percent would go out to 13 rural counties that are unlikely to take in much from gambling within their own borders.
Expanding gambling takes a 60 percent vote in both the House and the Senate. Ferris figures he has the votes to pass the bill in the House, although the earlier version of the bill never got out of committee.
Influential budget writers have signed onto the proposal, including House Appropriations Chairwoman Helen Sommers, D-Seattle, and House Finance Chairman Jeff Gombosky, D-Spokane, who both see gambling as way to offset deep cuts to education and health care.
However, reaching the 60 percent threshold in the Republican-controlled Senate could be much more difficult. Ways and Means Chairman Dino Rossi, R-Sammamish, hasn't conceded the need for any new money in his budget, and many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are flatly opposed to more gambling.
"Having government dependent on gambling for anything is just bad policy straight out," Sen. Dan Swecker, R-Rochester, said. "We've counted. We have the votes to kill it."
The Entertainment Industry Coalition was put together last year by the Recreational Gaming Association, the Washington Restaurant Association, charitable gaming interests, bowling alleys, bars and taverns.
Its members argue the tribal monopoly on machine gambling is siphoning away their customers.
Jim Springer, the coalition's president, contends that the machines would simply replace now-outmoded pull-tabs and bingo.
"We do not really, realistically, consider this an expansion of gaming in the state of Washington," said Springer, a former lawmaker who owns a bowling alley. If the proposal's backers win House Speaker Frank Chopp and Senate President Brad Owen to that argument, it could make passing the bill much easier.
Indian tribes, meanwhile, argue their special status allows them to provide vital services to their members. Randy Scott, a tribal lobbyist, said he doubts the proposal has enough support in either chamber.
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