It doesn’t seem like a bill can be passed suddenly, with little scrutiny of changes, more than 180 days after it was due, but just that happened on this bill.

While some people defended the gambling bill as having been fully vetted by debate, discussion and scrutiny, except for some minor late changes, that
was equally true of the major bills passed under Govs. Ed Rendell, Tom Ridge and Mark Schweiker. They also got lots of public discussion, then the actual
bill got rushed into passage, with a few cute things tucked away in it.

Also, some of those “minor changes” ain’t so minor. For example, now the state probably can add more casinos in the next few years to deal with its
budget problems. Before this bill, that had to wait until 2017. Now lawmakers like can tweak the gambling law without refunding hundreds of
millions in fees to casino licensees. cwArticle.asp?articleId=2009151 CLICK HERE to read about that.See below

That doesn’t mean House and Senate Republicans will quickly adopt new
casinos or expand slots or tables at existing sites. But this bill made that
possible mostly because it was passed before even some of its sponsors
realized certain provisions were in it.

One of the biggest criticisms of the current gambling bill is that too much
of it was written too quickly and jammed into law. On Monday, House Majority
Leader Todd Eachus, D-Luzerne, confirmed the deal had been made and votes
were expected in the Senate as soon as Tuesday. At that time, he said he
couldn’t say too much more because they were still writing the legislation.

On Tuesday evening, the brief Senate debate wasn’t long enough to let anyone
read the proposed legislation much past page 30 of an 150-plus-page bill
before the Senate voted to pass it.

On Wednesday the House voted to pass the measure, after its members had
between 12 and 20 hours to actually read it, and more than 24 hours to
digest a fairly thorough summary of it.

In the end, the bill was enacted without many lawmakers appreciating that
they were removing the major hurdle to further future expanded gambling in
the next three years, or taking note of other gems that await our discovery
now that it has been signed into law.

And it was enacted with deal after deal made to shore up votes, with many of
those deals not visible within the bill’s text. Most lawmakers won’t say
what it is they got, but expect the four members of the Bucks County GOP
delegation to show up at Washington’s Crossing Park when the new funding for
it is announced.

And don’t be surprised if a hospital or two in Bucks gets a million or so
dollars after the House votes to raise the state’s debt ceiling in a few
months. It also will be less than shocking if the same Bucks County GOPers
who voted for the table games bill see their favored bills get House floor
votes now.

Rep. Frank Farry, R-Bucks, a lawyer and volunteer fire company honcho, got
his first taste of being a House GOP crossover vote. Only 12 Republicans
voted for the measure, while 79 opposed it. Farry and his GOP colleagues
combined with 91 Democrats to barely pass the bill.

Farry said both Philadelphia Park Casino and Washington’s Crossing are in
neighboring districts, but that he has constituents who work at the casino
and volunteer at the park and both are important. He said he voted for the
bill because the casino already employs some of his constituents and he
hoped this expansion would expand that employment in his district and the
region.

Farry also said that until this, he had never been the 102nd or 103rd vote
on a major bill that most of his caucus opposed.

He found that it made the governor’s top staff a lot more attentive to him
and his district’s needs.

“It’s the first time I have had a chance to meet with some of the governor’s
top staff in my first year in office,” Farry said. “So perhaps the
opportunity to shore up the ‘yes’ votes on table games helped with that.”

Other lawmakers voting for the bill reported the same kind of attention, and
many got commitments for a vote or funding or some other item from either
the governor or House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dwight Evans,
D-Philadelphia.

Rendell officially denied any such proceedings, then essentially admitted
them, as only he can. Asked if he made deals to get table games votes, he
said: “No. When legislators in the discussion process asked for specific
things, I said, look, I’ve helped you guys in the past. Come back and see me
after this is over. But I made no specific commitments at all. I just
wouldn’t do that. I’m not a believer in buying votes. But I reminded the
legislators that in many ways, I’ve been their best friend when it comes to
projects, and that they should come and see me. And to the extent that the
project is good and we have money available, I would help them.”

Contrast that Rendell’s reaction to the potential upcoming departure of Rep.
Mario Civera, R-Delaware. Once a consistent vote for the Rendell agenda,
Civera switched when he became House Republican Appropriations Committee
chairman to being an anti-Rendell vote on most things and on almost all of
Rendell’s top recent priorities.
Now that Civera is not a vote for Rendell, the governor said of his
potential departure: “At this point of his career, it’s not much of a loss.”
What does that tell you about how long Rendell will remember this table
games vote?
So you got a bill passed in the Senate pretty much as soon as it was written and published on the legislative Web site, and passed quickly a day later in
the House.
And, as one veteran Republican who voted for it said, “We all have needs for
our district. The difference between me and some of my Republican colleagues
is that mine are going to be met a lot more than theirs are. I was gonna
vote for the table games anyway, but the rules are, it’s a close vote, you
get something. And all 12 of us did, and I think a lot of the Democrats will
too.”
Doesn’t sound so different to me

OFF THE FLOOR: Big bill full of little deals, just like old times.
By Peter L. DeCoursey Bureau Chief Capitolwire / pdecoursey@capitolwire.com

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