FL Senate Commerce Committee delays holding hearing on SB 408;
FL House committee attaches decoupling to a different gambling bill
Comments from TRI Senior Advisor Damon Thayer after the Florida House of Representatives’ Commerce Committee today voted 17-9 to approve HB 1467, which was amended to attach decoupling to an existing but separate gambling bill from HB 105 (the original decoupling bill). TRI representatives were prepared to testify before the Florida Senate’s Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment & General Government this afternoon. However, Committee Chairman Jason Brodeur announced that the committee would delay hearing SB 408.
“It was a very good day for us. The fight is not over. The Senate delaying the bill was a significant step in the right direction. However, the House attaching the bill to another piece of gaming legislation shows how desperate Gulfstream Park is to pass decoupling. We will continue to be wary during the waning weeks of the session.”
(As background: It’s unclear what happens next. There now are two separate bills in the House, HB 105 and HB 1467, that involve decoupling that are eligible to go to the House floor for a vote. The TRI has always felt their best shot is in the Senate. Both the House and Senate bills would have to be identical in order for the legislation to pass and go to the governor for his signature. Only one Senate committee has acted on that body’s version of the decoupling bill, with today’s Senate committee canceling its scheduled hearing on SB 408. Bills typically are approved by two committees before going to the full chamber for a floor vote.)
Damon Thayer: “Certainly the clock is starting to work more in our favor on the Senate side. We’ve always felt like we had a better chance to convince senators that this is a bad bill. And that’s what happened today in committee. The House attaching the bill to an unrelated gaming bill shows us how desperate Gulfstream Park is to pass this bill, no matter the consequences.
“We will continue to work the Senate to convince them that decoupling is a bad idea and our coalition wants time to work on solutions. It was a much better day than we thought going in. We were prepared for our best testimony yet in the Senate committee but were pleasantly surprised when Chairman (Jason) Brodeur announced that the bill would not be considered today.
“Then our coalition moved to the House. We knew the House committee was going to meet (with a new, amended gaming bill). We didn’t know the Senate was going to pass over the bill. Once the bill got delayed in the Senate, we decided to go over to the House and testify in that committee. We made a conscious decision to have fewer people testify because we know that the skids are greased in the House, (but) we wanted to put up a fight. We called an audible. A good quarterback knows when to make in-game changes, and that’s what we decided to do. We went with a smaller lineup and hit some different points but didn’t use our full array of speakers. We’ll keep our powder dry just in case this bill gets heard in a Senate committee next week.”
