Proposed expansion of gambling latest snag in state budget talks – Tulsa World

OKLAHOMA CITY The finger-pointing over revenue-raising measures, including a proposed expansion of gambling, continued Monday at the Capitol as a state budget agreement remained elusive.

This time House Democrats and Senate Republicans feuded over whose idea it was to include a tribal gaming bill in a $400 million revenue package proposed by House GOP leadership.

The bill, if adopted, would allow tribal casinos to add forms of roulette and craps and, possibly, sports betting.

House Minority Leader Scott Inman, D-Del City, said Monday morning that Senate Pro Tem Mike Schulz, R-Altus, had reneged on the revenue package, which prompted Schulz to claim the deal fell apart because Inman wanted full-blown, Vegas-style gambling in Oklahoma.

Inman denied any part in the gaming bill, and charged Republican leaders with trying to blame him for their inability to reach an agreement that accounts for a $1 billion hole in the fiscal year 2018 budget.

House Democrats did not propose this idea, Inman said Monday evening, nor did we demand it as part of the state budget package. Any claim by (Schulz) we did is simply false.

Inman said the gaming proposal was brought to him by House GOP leadership Sunday night, and that he agreed to present it to his caucus Monday morning. Before that occurred, though, Inman said Schulz scuttled the deal.

Inman then called a press conference to say Senate Republican leadership had backed out of the deal.

Schulz followed with his own press conference to deny the agreement ever existed.

There was no agreement last night, Schulz said. It was a proposal that was laid on the table and one that we were honest with last night with House leadership and said that is a very heavy lift.

The measure in question, House Bill 2376, was one of 12 revenue bills passed by a House revenue and budget panel Monday afternoon, but was not heard in the corresponding Senate committee.

Schulz said the gaming bill entails dice and a full-blown roulette wheel with the marble dice and marbles rather than cards, Schulz said. It is a huge expansion into that area and just something our caucus has a lot of difficulty accepting.

The bill also allows for expansion into sports betting if allowed by the federal government and negotiated by the governor with the individual tribes.

Inman, whose caucus has proposed a revenue package that includes hikes in gross production taxes and income taxes for top-earning households, said he agreed to other measures, including: increasing the cigarette tax by $1.50; a cap on itemized deductions; restoring the Earned Income Tax Credit; eliminating the vendor discount for some box stores; eliminating about $50 million in oil and gas credits; and the changes to tribal gaming compacts.

Both legislative budget panels on Monday passed a stand-alone cigarette tax increase, which would require a super majority in both houses to make it into law. Gov. Mary Fallin has said she supports raising the tax.

The deal did not include a 6-cent hike in gasoline and diesel taxes that had been coupled with the cigarette tax in an earlier bill, nor did it include a gross production tax increase.

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Proposed expansion of gambling latest snag in state budget talks - Tulsa World