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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2009 > September > 14 > Entry
UPDATED - Third lawsuit challenges slots at tracks
Two Dayton-area Ohio House members on Monday, Sept. 14, filed a lawsuit challenging the plan to put video slot machines at Ohio’s seven racetracks.
The lawsuit contends that the plan violates a provision in the Ohio Constitution that prohibits the state from going into business with private businesses, in this case the seven racetracks, state Sen. Tim Grendell, R-Chesterland, the lawyer filing the suit said.
Rep. Seth Morgan, R-Huber Heights, and John Adams, R-Sidney, will file the suit in the Ohio Supreme Court along with the Ohio Christian Alliance and Rep. Ron Amstutz, R-Wooster, said Adams.
It will be the third lawsuit challenging the slots at the tracks plan approved by Gov. Ted Strickland and the legislature. The plan expands the Ohio Lottery to include the video slots and is supposed to raise $933 million for K-12 education.
Amanda Wurst, Strickland’s spokeswoman, said the plan is constitutional. The constitution gives the governor the authority to establish the terms under which the Ohio Lottery operates and the legislature gave its backing to the slots plan in the budget bill, Wurst said.
The new lawsuit will cite Article 8, Section 4, of the Ohio Constitution, said Grendell.
The section says:
“The credit of the state shall not, in any manner, be given or loaned to, or in aid of, any individual association or corporation whatever; nor shall the state ever hereafter become a joint owner, or stockholder in any company or association in this state, or elsewhere, formed for any purpose whatever.”
The plan calls for the state and the tracks to split the money from the slots, said Grendell.
The Ohio Roundtable, a suburban Cleveland conservative public policy group, previously has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the slots-at-the-tracks plan.
LetOhioVote.org, another conservative group, filed the first suit against the gambling plan. That suit asked the court to let the group mount a campaign to put the gambling proposal before voters in Nov. 2010. This would delay the start of the slot plan, which now is set to begin next May.
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Comments
By john
September 14, 2009 9:26 PM | Link to this
These lawsuit’s are stupid. Seth I voted for a republican for the state house all my life. NO more for you. 16,000 racing job’s to be saved 5,000 to 15,000 new job’s to be created you are dead wrongBy cecgm938
September 14, 2009 3:53 PM | Link to this
Why are the going to courts over slots—gambling? What do you think they do at the tracks? Let people gamble if they want to. Poor suckers live in Ohio already—not a right to work state—high income and property taxes—and the climate sucks. Just let some people enjoy themselves. Will there be a casino in Springfield—or just the usual big cities—we always get left out. People would come to Spfld to have fun, not just to be sick at our new hospital.By Jamie
September 14, 2009 3:40 PM | Link to this
Mike that is a dumb statement. Yes you pay school tax but let the casino keep their money because you are tired of paying for other peoples kids education? Don’t gamble then simple as that. The money needs to go to help area schools.By mike
September 14, 2009 2:54 PM | Link to this
Why does the casino have to give money for education? Let them keep their money and let the people who are having kids pay for them. I am tired of funding education.By Eric
September 14, 2009 1:45 PM | Link to this
I think Cr is right put it on the ballot and in the mean time Gov. Strickland should slash all state funding from the budge to balance it and let the communities deal with it!By Joe
September 14, 2009 1:24 PM | Link to this
They’re not going in Casinos. They are planned for the race tracks. Therein is the difference. One has nothing to do with the other.By Sharon
September 14, 2009 11:02 AM | Link to this
What if they took all the money that both sides are spending(wasting)on campaigns to promote their ideologies of what is right or wrong for Ohio and put that cash into knocking the deficit down in the Ohio budget!By CR
September 14, 2009 10:54 AM | Link to this
Greg—the voters voted down the casinos in the three C’s, not against slots at the race tracks. Put it up for a special vote in November 2009 and let the people vote.By CR
September 14, 2009 10:49 AM | Link to this
Put it on the ballot in November and let the voters decide.By Tomas
September 14, 2009 10:33 AM | Link to this
Apparently all these do-gooders would rather see the gaming moneys continue to go to the four neighboring states instead of to our kids’ education. These right-wing zealots ratchet up the issues and convince Ohioans that this is going to cause crime and other heinous results (resulting in the “no” votes of the past”). They never address the fact that Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia have seen no increase in crime since installing slots, etc. You can also bet that the casinos along our borders have pumped a bunch of money into the ads against Ohio casinos for obvious reasons.By Greg
September 14, 2009 9:54 AM | Link to this
Maybe I’m missing something here, but I thought the voters of Ohio voted down slots at casinos. Then Gov. Ted made the executive decision to put them in anyhow. Does this sound right?By Mayor Mchat
September 14, 2009 9:30 AM | Link to this
Lets sue somw people and get prohibit more people in Ohio from getting jobs.By if only
September 14, 2009 9:06 AM | Link to this
If only the US constitution had that same section. I wish “policy” groups would leave this alone. The only real reason they have for challenging it is that they can make money off of filing lawsuites. If they stood to make money from the slots, they wouldn’t be making a sound.By sam jones
September 14, 2009 9:02 AM | Link to this
wasting more tax payer money……get over it, you are fighting against the children of the state and their education