Editorial: Horse racing isn't answer for state budget woes
A bipartisan group of state legislators assembled as the Special Equine Study Committee doesn't appear to be filled with careful students of Georgia history.
Continue reading the rest of "Editorial: Horse racing isn't answer for state budget woes" by Athens Banner-Herald
The committee is charged with looking into the possibilities of bringing horse racing - and, of course, the associated wagering - to Georgia. It's interesting, though, that the committee's reason for being wasn't immediately apparent in an announcement earlier this week of a Wednesday committee meeting.
The announcement indicated the group was gathering to consider "potential positive impacts of the equine community on Georgia's economy." At the session, though, Rep. Harry Geisinger, the Roswell Republican who chairs the group, "said ... the panel would propose a public referendum to legalize a new form of gambling in the state," according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution report.
Never mind that proposals to allow pari-mutuel betting, which would require a statewide vote on a constitutional amendment, have been introduced with some regularity in the legislature, without ever making it to a referendum.
And never mind the more recent history of the group of conservative voters who reliably might be expected to oppose a pari-mutuel betting initiative. For the past couple of years, social conservatives across the state have been able to cow lawmakers into bottling up legislation that would allow communities to decide on a local basis whether alcohol could be sold in stores on Sundays.
All that appears not to matter to Geisinger, who told Atlanta's WABE-FM (90.1) there are "a lot of new citizens in Georgia that we didn't have 20 years ago," of whom he said, "I think you're going to find that they're going to be favorable toward it."
Even if legislators did determine there is some pent-up desire to establish horse racing in Georgia - certainly not an issue many of them will want to explore with their constituencies in an election year, which
© 2009 http://onlineathens.com - Athens Banner-Herald - All rights reserved.
