AUGUSTA – After a brief debate Thursday, the House of Representatives voted to sustain Gov. Paul LePage’s veto that kills a bill passed by the Legislature earlier this year. That bill would have allowed fraternal and veterans organizations to install gambling machines at their clubhouses.
Voting 80 against overriding the veto and 60 for it, the House didn’t muster the two-thirds vote needed to override LePage’s veto.
“The question of gambling is one that must be answered by Maine voters,” LePage wrote in his veto message. “While this bill seeks to increase revenues for Maine’s important civic organizations, I cannot support doing so without voter approval.”
Prior to the vote, several lawmakers told their colleagues they were disappointed the governor’s message, delivered Friday, May 25, came at the start of Memorial Day weekend.
“It certainly made a somber weekend more somber for me and for those veterans organizations that were looking forward to the fact that after 20 years this Legislature finally responded to what’s been an ongoing issue for them,” Rep. Stacey Fitts, R-Pittsfield, said.
Fitts and other lawmakers said the total number of gambling machines, which are deemed slot machines under state law, would only be 100 in the first year of enactment and only 250 machines in all. The measure also limited the number any one clubhouse could have to five machines.
The bill’s supporters – many also veterans and members of veterans organizations – said it would help those groups continue the charitable work they do in their local communities.
“Funding for veterans is such a struggle and battle,” Rep. Cheryl Briggs, D-Mexico, said. “Our veterans are reaching out to us asking for our support. Please let’s not let them down; let’s stand strong and show them what we can do for them.”
But Rep. Jarrod Crockett, R-Bethel, also a war veteran, said his colleagues were blurring the issue and were attempting to enact what amounted to an expansion of gambling on a statewide level.
“Let’s not wrap this in the flag,” Crockett said. “The executive branch made a decision; there’s a lot of problems with this bill.”
While House members in favor of the bill kept referring to the potential benefits for veterans groups, Crockett said, the measure also would apply to fraternal groups, and it didn’t provide for any balance or a mechanism for deciding which groups would get the machines.
“We are talking about a 250-machine expansion of gambling without voter approval,” Crockett said.
The bill also didn’t favor veterans groups in the two counties, Oxford and Penobscot, where casinos are open or opening, over others that didn’t have competition from casinos nearby, Crockett said.
Rep. Dale Crafts, R-Lisbon, said installing slot machines in veterans halls seemed counterproductive if those groups were truly struggling for revenue.
“To me, if they are having a problem surviving, the last thing that I would do is to put a gambling machine, a slot machine, in the organization to tempt them to put more of their hard-earned money into a slot machine,” Crafts said. “I think that would end up hurting the membership more than it would end up helping the membership.”
Crafts suggested they save the money they would have gambled away and instead consider increasing membership dues.
Lawmakers earlier this year created a new gambling task force, and veterans groups have been given a spot on that task force, which will be aimed at creating gambling policies for Maine.
LePage’s veto message is consistent with his stance on gambling. He has said he is personally opposed to gambling as an economic development tool, and has repeatedly said the issue is one to be resolved by all Maine voters via statewide referendum.
“I know the veterans organizations supporting this bill will be upset by my decision, but I would support this initiative if it allowed Maine people to provide their input,” LePage wrote, “even if it was just at the local level.”
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