House offers new Seminole gambling plan
Negotiators: Blackjack in Broward in exchange for slots-only outside county
By Josh Hafenbrack
Tallahassee Bureau
© 2009South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Friday, May 1, 2009
TALLAHASSEE: The House broke its longstanding objections to blackjack Friday, offering to allow the Seminoles to keep the card tables operating at their Hard Rock casino in Hollywood.
Under the House offer, the tribe's blackjack games would be limited to Broward County. It would require the Seminoles to shut down the blackjack tables at its Tampa casino and preclude blackjack at three other tribal facilities.
In Broward, the Seminoles would be authorized to have blackjack at both its Hollywood and Coconut Creek casinos. The latter has no tables yet, but the tribe plans to add them.
The Seminoles, under this latest offer, would be required to pay the state $200 million a year over 15 years.
"That's a very big move for us," said the House's lead gaming negotiator, Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton. "This is not the time in the game to just be taking nibbles. So we made the decision to make a move pretty much to the brink of where we can. It's my feeling, based on negotiations with the tribe and the Senate, that if we are to get a resolution, [blackjack] would have to come into play."
The two chambers must reach a deal by next week before the state budget is finalized -- a timeline that makes resolving such major gambling policy a "very hard lift," in the words of Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach.
Outside Broward, the House offer gives the Seminoles exclusive rights to Vegas-style slot machines.
The House offer is a mixed bag for South Florida's pari-mutuel facilities, which are struggling to compete with the Seminole juggernaut. They'd get a lower tax rate and higher poker betting limits (from $5 to $50), but the House offer appears to shut the door to blackjack for horse and dog tracks.
The House offer agrees to lower the slots betting age to 18, a concession to the Senate. But another issue is arising as a sticking point: electronic, slots-like gambling outside South Florida.
The House has rejected a Senate proposal to allow local referendums on so-called video lottery terminals, machines that look like slots but actually are a form of bingo in which patrons compete against each other.
Adding a new wrinkle, the House plan also would allow the Rooney family -- owners of Palm Beach Kennel Club -- to create another dog track and poker room in Palm Beach County. The Rooneys owned a long-shuttered jai-alai facility in Palm Beach County. The family would be allowed to transform the dormant permit for that facility into a license for a dog track.
House gives counter offer on gambling
By Dara Kam
Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau
© 2009 Palm Beach Post
Friday, May 01, 2009
TALLAHASSEE — A counteroffer on casino gambling from the House on Friday has nothing about blackjack and slots for Palm Beach County but a second dog track could be in the cards.
The legislature is trying to agree on a bid to the Seminole Indians to form a gambling compact that could bring in revenue for the state.
The Senate earlier this week proposed slot machines at Palm Beach Kennel Club, if voters approved it, and blackjack for counties adjacent to Broward and Miami-Dade that had slots.
The House's offer would allow Broward's dog track and two horse tracks to offer blackjack, but the tribe would be limited to blackjack only at its Hollywood Hard Rock Casino.
Allowing blackjack anywhere was a big move for the House, the chamber's chief gambling negotiator said.
"This is not the time in the game to just be taking nibbles so we made a decision to make a move pretty much to the brink of where we can," said Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton.
The House plan would allow facilities with two jai alai permits to convert one to dog racing. The Rooney family, owners of the Kennel Club, have a jai alai permit that has not been in use for more than 10 years.
Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander and the House's chief gambling negotiator will begin talks this morning on a budget deal that will be decided by House Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Gainesville, and Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach.
The House's limits on blackjack at the Hollywood resort likely won't cut it, Alexander said.
House agrees to blackjack at 1 tribal site
By Catherine Dolinski
cdolinski@tampatrib.com
© 2009 Tampa Tribune
Friday, May 01, 2009
In what Rep. Bill Galvano called a "very big move for us," the House agreed Thursday to let the Seminole Tribe continue offering blackjack - but only at its flagship casino in Hollywood, Fla.
It was the latest significant move in difficult negotiations between the House and Senate over terms for a new gambling compact with the tribe. House leaders have said for weeks that they would not agree to banked card games at Seminole casinos, in contrast with the Senate, which has proposed more liberal gaming expansions this spring.
The House proposal would force the tribe to give up its blackjack tables at its Hard Rock casino in Tampa and other facilities outside of Broward County.
"We made a decision to make a move, pretty much to the brink of where we can," said Galvano, R-Bradenton, the House's chief negotiator on the issue. "It's my feeling, based on negotiations with the tribe and also the Senate, that if we are to get some resolution, that that provision would have to come into play."
Galvano is continuing negotiations on the compact this weekend with Senate budget chief JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales.
Alexander called the House concession on limited blackjack for the Seminoles a "small step." It's hard to imagine the Seminoles signing a compact, he said, without broader rights to offer banked card games. "I think really the issue is whether you allow those games in the Tampa facility," Alexander said.
Both chambers have worked for months on proposals for a compact - to which the tribe will have to agree - as well as changes in taxation and regulation to help nontribal parimutuels compete.
A prior compact that Gov. Charlie Crist negotiated with the tribe in late 2007 authorized Seminole casinos to offer banked card games such as blackjack. The state Supreme Court essentially voided the compact, but the tribe has continued offering the games, offending House lawmakers in particular.
The existence of those blackjack tables can't be ignored, Alexander said. "It would be hard to imagine, from my understanding, ... that the tribe would sign up to write checks for hundreds of millions of dollars if they can't do what they're essentially already doing."
SESSION WRAP: Citizens Insurance going up; Alley lease tougher
By Michael Peltier
© Naples News
Friday, May 01, 2009
TALLAHASSEE — Florida lawmakers called its quits - sort of - Friday as they passed a list of high priority measures but left gambling and the budget for when they return next week to finish out the 2009 legislative session.
Overall, lawmakers brought closure to the session’s most pressing issues but plan to meet again next week to pass the state’s $65 billion budget and craft a gambling compact with the Seminole Indian Tribe of Florida.
Before calling it quits Friday, lawmakers approved measures to raise property insurance rates, change growth management rules and a handful of proposed constitutional amendments including one that would reduce property taxes for first-time home buyers and renters.
And the session will also be remembered for what didn’t make it, including changes to the state’s class size amendment, Florida Forever and Everglades cleanup.
Of local interest, delegates were successful in applying the brakes to efforts that would allow for a quick lease of Alligator Alley to private investors without at least some government oversight.
The protections were added late in the game at the insistence of local lawmakers who threatened to slow up a needed transportation package without the changes.
“This will help us protect taxpayer assets,” said Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres.
PROPERTY INSURANCE CHANGES AHEAD
Among a list of must-pass items, lawmakers approved a measure to boost premiums for members of the state-run property insurance pool while reducing the state’s exposure to hurricane losses. Pressed by the governor and Senate members, the House agreed to capping premium hikes to 10 percent a year for policyholders of Citizens Property Insurance Corp. The premium increase was less than an original House proposal to allow annual rates hikes to jump by 20 percent.
Sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, the measure has the potential to raise rates on nearly 19,000 wind and multi-peril Citizens policies in Collier County and 48,000 in Lee.
The question now is whether Gov. Charlie Crist will sign the measure. The governor has said he favors a more gradual increase in rates for Citizens, the state-run program that now insures more homeowners than any private company.
“We’ll see what we get and then we’ll know,” Crist said when asked if he was supporting a property insurance bill at this time.
Crist will also get a chance to approve or veto a measure to allow State Farm and other large insurers to raise rates without state approval.
FGCU FUNDING BETTER THAN COULD HAVE BEEN
Florida Gulf Coast University will be required to absorb a $6.7 million cut in operating revenue, if preliminary estimates hold true. The gap will be temporarily filled by a $3.5 million infusion of federal stimulus money, but university officials say those funds cannot be used to pay for faculty and staff salaries or other recurring expenses.
The reductions come atop more than $6 million in cuts the university has sustained since 2007, cuts in funding that come at a critical time for the growing university.
“We’re pleased that the cuts were not as large as originally proposed,” said FGCU spokeswoman Susan Evans.
That said, the cuts come at a particularly critical time for the state’s newest university.
“The cuts to our base budget are very serious in terms of our ability to hire faculty and staff and provide academic programs,” Evans said.
ALLIGATOR ALLEY
Of local interest, delegates banded together with House Democrats to make it more difficult for backers to privatize Alligator Alley without some government oversight.
Under current law, toll roads can be privatized if backers can convince the Legislative Budget Commission, a 14-member panel empowered to approve spending in lieu of the full Legislature.
Under a measure approved Friday, Alligator Alley and toll roads would have to be approved by the seven-member Council on Efficient Government, created by the Legislature in 2006 to review potential outsourcing plans, if Crist signs the bill.
Rep. Matt Hudson, R-Naples, led the push in the House to add the oversight provision to the Senate’s transportation legislation.
“This will gives the state some oversight on what is an important public asset.” Hudson said.
BUDGET, GAMING UP NEXT WEEK
Lawmakers left some unfinished business. Still up for resolution is a proposed gambling compact with the Seminoles and another provisions to improve the competitiveness of existing pari-mutuels around the state.
The issue is contentious, especially in regard to allowing blackjack and other card games at Indian casinos around the state, including the Seminole casino in Immokalee.
Lawmakers will return Thursday to complete their work on the budget.
Negotiations will continue throughout the weekend and into early next week.
E-mail Michael Peltier at mpeltier1234@comcast.net.
© Naples News