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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > July > 12 > Entry
Editorial: Strickland couldn’t be more wrong
Gov. Ted Strickland is recklessly, obstinately and selfishly putting Ohio on a horrible course.
He refuses to give up on his plan to help balance the state budget by allowing as many as 17,500 slot machines divided among Ohio’s seven racetracks. He hopes that permitting the so-called video lottery terminals will raise almost $1 billion.
Going with the slots avoids having to cut state programs by that amount or raising taxes.
There is so much wrong with the idea that it’s hard to know where to begin. But let’s keep it simple:
— Ohioans have voted against casino-style gambling four times in the last 19 years. That the governor thinks he can dismiss those powerful statements — unilaterally — is amazing for someone who fancies himself humble.
— The language allowing the expanded gambling is being written in a matter of days and hours. There is absolutely no reason to believe that the governor’s people have thought of everything they should have to protect the interests of Ohio or local communities.
— The public vetting of the governor’s decision has been less than what would be required to pass a resolution naming a state worm. The brief hearings that occurred in the Senate only validated the fear that there has been no serious thought put into the details of the proposal.
The lottery director, who will be charged with overseeing the gambling enterprises, didn’t even know how his job description was going to change until a few days before he was insisting that his agency could be an effective check on the sophisticated gaming industry.
— States that allow gambling have elaborate regulatory apparatus to make sure that governments get their fair share of gambling proceeds, that communities are not run over by gaming outfits and that corruption isn’t rampant.
Ohio’s protections will be an afterthought — decided after the horse (no pun intended) is out of the barn.
Meanwhile, there’s the matter of how this measure may affect Montgomery and Warren counties.
Lebanon Raceway is reportedly interested in moving from Warren County, sensing that the county commissioners there are hostile to allowing slots at its track. (The county commission owns the land the raceway is on.)
The governor’s people have contacted Montgomery County commissioners to ask how this community feels about a horse racing track with slots in its backyard. It’s not clear how they could possibly know, considering that there has been absolutely no public discussion of the idea.
At the same time, state Rep. Clayton Luckie is eager to say that he’s the person who got this whole conversation going about the Lebanon track moving to Montgomery County. He points to his friendship with the Lebanon Raceway owners.
Meanwhile, Warren County Commissioner Pat South says her county would like the raceway to stay in that county, just not at the fairgrounds if slots are going to be allowed.
The faux casino in the Dayton area would face competition from River Downs near Cincinnati, and Scioto Downs and Beulah Park near Columbus. So it wouldn’t be much of a destination. If the market is saturated, that complicates the task of attracting developers who are eager to dump big bucks into a venue for purposes of making it special.
(Rep. Luckie says he wants federal stimulus money to be used to finance the development. What do you want to bet that’s not going to happen?)
With the governor’s effort to blanket the state with these places, what we have is a desperate leader proving his unwillingness to use his bully pulpit to speak truth to taxpayers.
And who knows whether the state will ever be able to undo all the ways in which we will surely get snookered.
This is not the Ted Strickland Ohio elected.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Ellen Belcher, Montgomery County, Ohio government, Suburban Communities
Comments
By Bryan
July 13, 2009 10:41 AM | Link to this
This is the exact Ted Strickland that you fools elected! However your naivete and liberal ‘head in the clouds’ agenda blinded you from reality! It sounds like you might finally be waking up from your drunken liberal love affair with this clown. Just don’t relapse!By William
July 14, 2009 3:33 PM | Link to this
Let’s be honest folks, Gov. Strickland is doing what the voters should have agreed to do long ago: recognize that we already gamble in Ohio. We have a lottery and race tracks that you can legally gamble at. Voters just don’t want a casino, but they aren’t opposed to gambling. The money will help fix the budget and there won’t be casinos. The DDN has it wrong and has missed the boat. If you want to say no gambling get rid of the tracks and lottery. I BET you that won’t go over to well with the so called anti-gambling voter.By Joh
July 15, 2009 7:12 PM | Link to this
Gov. Strickland and Rep. Luckie are doing what need’s to be done and what had to be done. They saved 16,000 racing job’s and who know’s how many new one’s conservative guess 10,000. Thank both of youBy dmack
July 16, 2009 1:59 PM | Link to this
gov. Ted is all for gambling, as long as no private industry jobs are created by it! all state run gaming is run by EXISTING employees(waitresses/keno,gas station/lottery/slot mach..etc).good thing this newspaper is still trying to scare people from casino gambling! we all know,or have been,to casinos in Indiana to know that all the “horrible crime, drugs, prostitution” is probably 10 times more likely in lovely downtown Dayton!~