Substitute bingo bill would give counties money

By By Bob Martin, The Alabama Scene
A substitute bingo constitutional amendment was introduced Tuesday by State Sen. Roger Bedford, D-Russellville, that will give counties $41 million in taxes directly from bingo game proceeds in addition to the $250 million the original legislation would have provided to the state for education budgets and Medicaid.
If you include the Medicaid federal match that would be created, the proposal would provide nearly a half-billion in new money for state and county governments.
State Rep. Marcel Black of Tuscumbia, who will handle the bill in the House if it passes the Senate, told me that the substitute will provide the funds to the counties on the basis of population. “Counties are struggling with funding just like the state and this would be a real help at the local level,” Black said.
The bingo legislation would establish ten locations in the state which could offer the same type bingo as the Poarch Creek Indian tribes have at Atmore, Wetumpka and Montgomery. The legislation proposes a constitutional amendment to be on the ballot this November.
The locations included in the bill are VictoryLand in Macon County, The Birmingham Race Course, the Mobile Race Track, the race track in Greene County, Country Crossing in Houston County and two sites at White Hall in Lowndes County. In addition, a new state gaming commission would be established and could add an additional location in Birmingham and one location in each of the congressional districts north of Jefferson County.
Meanwhile the verbal battle between Gov. Bob Riley and Atty. Gen. Troy King continues with King threatening to take over the Riley Anti-Gambling Task Force unless Riley and his Task Force Commander, Mobile District Attorney John Tyson Jr. halt conducting illegal raids.
This past week King and Tyson held dueling press conferences.
King held a news conference last Wednesday recommending to the Governor’s Task Force on Illegal Gambling that they let the courts be the decision maker on what is legal and what is not legal. In Greene County where the sheriff has said he will prevent any attempted raid if there is no warrant, including deputizing and arming local citizens, King said he is concerned that law enforcement and the public could be at risk of being harmed. King claims to have the authority as attorney general to take over the task force, but as I write he had declined to take such action. “I have never seen a more ill-advised and reckless approach to a legal issue than the current approach now being undertaken by the governor’s task force,” King said.
Responding to King a few hours after the attorney general spoke, Tyson asserted that he had no intention of following King’s advice. “The attorney general knows what his powers are. And he basically announced today that while he was going to give his advice, he was not going to do anything. So the work of the task force will continue,” Tyson said.
Meanwhile the sheriff in Greene County waits with guns drawn should Tyson dare visit. Stay tuned.
Stan Pate gets fine, jail time
Tuscaloosa businessman and political gadfly Stan Pate was convicted of menacing and sentenced to 30 days in jail and a fine after being convicted of menacing in Tuscaloosa City Court.
Pate, 52, a frequent critic of Gov. Riley, was charged after wielding a 12-guage shotgun last year during an argument over property being removed at a rental property he owns. Pate claims the property belonged to him. His attorney says Pate will appeal.
Another unsightly drilling rig
Our little piece of paradise on West Beach has once again been invaded by another unsightly drilling rig, this one much closer to the water’s edge in Gulf Shores.
The rigs closer to Mobile Bay bothered me, but not like this one which interferes with one of the most picturesque sunsets in the world and sports much brighter lights than those near the bay.
I understand the necessity for oil and gas exploration and am willing to look out and create a fiction that I’m just viewing a shoreline with a seven-story building jutting into the Gulf. But darn it, they could dim those florescent lights.
Bob Martin is editor and publisher of The Montgomery Independent. Email him at: bob@montgomeryindependent.com