State senator says bingo bills’ opponents distorted issues

Much has been written and editorialized in our newspapers recently regarding the bingo bills, SB 191 and SB 93. One specific piece “Bingo wields potent political hand” outlined state Sen. Hank Sanders’ opinion of the plight of the state Senate. It is unfortunate for the readers that most of the media coverage has missed the point. The bill that was discussed for several weeks was a bill that pertained only to Macon County. I also had a similar bill that would only impact Greene County. As the sponsor of one of these bills, I believe it necessary to refute some of the arguments used to stop consideration of the legislation, and prevent Greene County from being treated fairly.

First, the Senate bill I introduced, at the request of local officials, and attempted to get the Senate to vote on, does not expand gambling in Greene County or any other part of the state. The bill would create a local commission to regulate bingo operations in Greene County, the very deficiency Sen. Sanders complains of. The bill would also generate additional revenue for local governments, again another complaint of the senator. My bill would generate an additional $500,000 for the Greene County Commission. Maybe the senator from Selma prefers Greene County officials send their revenue to Montgomery so the governor could tells us how to spend it.

These changes to existing law are provided in my bill, if the citizens of Greene County approve this constitutional amendment. I simply asked my colleagues in the Senate to honor Rule 81. “The Senate encourages ‘Local Courtesy’ when voting on local bills and members are requested to vote for local bills that relate to political subdivisions that they do not represent in order for these local bills to receive the constitutional majority needed to become law.” Passage of my bill would not enact a change in the law; my bill would let the people vote. The people would decide if these changes should be enacted.

Greene County has voted on a constitutional amendment to allow bingo in our county. More than 400 good people make a living working in this industry. If they had a Honda plant or a Mercedes plant to work at, I am sure they would; but we have far too few jobs for people in our area of the state. Many professionals as well, derive income from this industry. According to Inside Alabama Politics, the senator’s law firm “... had been legal counsel for the racetrack in Greene County until recent years.”

It is essential that I make a point about the political potent hand in this debate in the Senate. The political forces that attempted to shut down the Senate and kill the session were not the folks in Greene County. The Republican senators were holding up business of the Senate. Additionally, there must have been 12 or 15 lobbyist all opposing the local bills, bills that would simply let the people vote. Powerful corporations with their own interest were fighting to kill these bills. A list includes: Ronnie Gilley Properties, which plans to develop Country Crossing in Dothan that will have “charity bingo”; Nova Gaming LLC; International Game Technology; Southeastern Gaming Opportunities, which has stated it wants to spend $100 million to build a casino in Alabama; and, of course, the Poarch Band of Creek Indians.

These were the folks lobbying against the Macon County bill, and the Greene County bill. These were the special interest holding the business of the Senate hostage. These were the people with the political potent hand, not the people in my county.

I did share one concern of my fellow senator, I had hoped gambling interests in Alabama were not too strong. I had hoped gambling interest were not so strong that it kept senators from voting on a local bill. I had hoped the gambling interests were not so strong that they denied the opportunity to let the people vote for more regulation and more local government revenue.

My hopes were not realized, corporate gambling interests were too strong. A majority of the senators sided with these strong forces and denied the people of Macon and Greene counties the right to vote on a local issue.

Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, is a state senator.