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April 01, 2005
House Dems Take a Stand on Gambling
It was a classic political set-up, about to unfold according to plan.
The Texas House is in session in Austin, faced with myriad funding shortages -- none greater than public education -- plus a GOP majority determined to cut taxes. Enter gambling.
For Speaker Craddick and his gang, a dilemma: We want the gambling revenue to offset our tax cuts (never mind that it would make little progress toward solving the public education funding crisis), but as "conservatives", we can't be seen as the face of any effort to legalize gambling in Texas. That would be moral turpitude!
Mr. Craddick, clever as always, had a solution. Get Democrats to carry the bill! After all, their constituents have been hit hardest by budget cuts, and they are desperate to restore at least some funding to programs that have been gutted. Let them be the face of legalized gambling. We'll get our revenue, and once more Texans will see Democrats (with a little help from us) as godless heathens without "values."
State GOP Chair Tina Benkiser scheduled an Austin rally, to decry the immorality of legalized gambling. Never mind that her state elected leaders were quietly pushing gambling behind the scenes, this would be a golden opportunity to pound the hapless Democrats yet again. Republicans would have their cake and eat it too. It almost worked.
One freshman Democrat from Houston came out immediately against gambling. For several weeks he was a lone voice in the wilderness, condemning the bill as a most regressive way to raise revenue -- on the backs of the poor and working classes already struggling to make ends meet.
Then Wednesday, just a day before Benkiser's "Bash the Democrats", er... "Oppose Gambling" rally, House Dems said no. Messieurs Dunnam, Coleman & Gallego refused to be played again, and stepped all over Benkisers planned photo-op in the process.
Houtopia is not opposed to some future legalized gambling in Texas, but it is a risky and disgraceful way to try to fund public education. Good for House Democrats -- no fooling.
Posted by houtopia at April 1, 2005 10:51 AM