updates

As you probably heard, much has happened with the casino issue. In case you have not been keeping up, here is the short version:

After 3 votes and several parliamentary maneuvers yesterday morning in committee, the casino bill could not get passed. So I thought it might actually be dead. Freshman mistake. The Democratic leadership just removed one member that voted against it and put 2 new members on that favored a certain version. After session today, the committee had a special meeting and voted a casino bill out very quickly.

This issue is all the talk in the hallways of the Capitol.

Rumor is that the Speaker committed to the Governor that he would get it out of committee, and it was then the Governor's responsibility to get the votes to pass it on the floor. But that may be just a rumor. The bill needs 60 votes to pass out of the House. Of course, the President of the Senate has said publicly that it is not going anywhere in the Senate, so this may all be an exercise in futility.

Also, I got my bill, HB 309, out of committee yesterday. I want to thank the Chairman, Steve Riggs, for hearing my bill, and the members of the committee for voting it out. I also want to thank the gentlemen from the Louisville FOP who went out of their way to come to the meeting to support me, even though I did not ask and were not aware they were coming.