How Powerball Killed a Kentucky "Winner"

It's the fucking Hunger Games, complete with poor-on-poor violence, entertainment for the rich and dead bodies.

From the Ashland Daily Independent:

David Lee Edwards, who went from unemployed ex-con to Powerball millionaire and whose life became a testament to the seductive and destructive powers of sudden wealth and fame, died Saturday in Community Hospice Care Center in Ashland.

Edwards was 58. The cause of his death was not immediately known, but he had been widely reported to have been in failing health in recent years.

Edwards also had been out of the public eye since returning to the Ashland area in 2007 after being kicked out of his mansion in an exclusive gated community in Florida.

Edwards was thrust into the national spotlight in August 2001, when he won a one-fourth share of a $280 million Powerball jackpot. At the time, it was the third-largest lottery pot in U.S. history. He opted for a lump-sum payment of $41 million, banking $27 million after taxes.

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Edwards acknowledged that he'd made some mistakes in his life, but he said that was all behind him. He also said he planned to put his newfound fortune to the best and wisest use he possibly could.

"I didn't want to accept this money by saying I'm going to get mansions and I'm going to get cars, I'm going to do this and that," he said. "I would like to accept it with humility. I want this money to last, for me, for my future wife, for my daughter and future generations."

Then, in practically the next breath, he said he planned to buy himself a Rolls-Royce and that Maddux wanted a Ferrari.

In November 2001, Edwards and Maddux moved into a 6,000-square-foot, $1.5 million home in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. The couple married in Maui on New Year's Day 2002.

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The Edwardses' life eventually began to spiral out of control, fueled, according to a Florida newspaper account, by their escalating drug use. Police were called to their home on one occasion in 2004 after Shawna Edwards stabbed her husband with a crack pipe.

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The Edwardses eventually lost their mansion to foreclosure and moved into a warehouse complex that David Edwards had rented to store his cars and furniture.

Kentucky's Gamble Fails; It Has to Budget the Hard Way

Fun as it is to watch Sen. Damon Thayer throw a hissy fit over his own party leader killing his gambling bill, let's not let the hair-pulling and eye-scratching going on at the Capitol distract us from the desperate need to start making Kentucky's obscenely wealthy individuals and corporations pay their share in taxes.

Janet Patton at the Herald:

A bid to allow casino gambling in Kentucky fell short of passage Thursday when the state Senate voted 21-16 against it. One senator was absent.

Gov. Steve Beshear's proposed constitutional amendment, introduced by Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, would have let voters decide in November whether to allow up to seven casinos.

"I want to congratulate Senate President Williams," Thayer said after the vote. "He has orchestrated the defeat of this amendment and he deserves credit for doing that."

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The governor, who defeated Williams to win re-election with a campaign promise to "let the people decide" on gambling, blamed the Senate president.

"Obviously, I am disappointed that several of the senators who had publicly said they would support letting the people decide did not follow through on their commitment to our citizens," Beshear said in a statement. "I am also disappointed that Senator Williams chose to sabotage the chance for our citizens to decide by scheduling the vote for today, when he knew that a senator who planned to vote 'yes' would not be in town."

In 1987 Wallace Wilkinson got elected governor on the promise to establish a lottery that would solve Kentucky's budget problems once and for all. Lottery dollars would shower billions on education and give the Commonwealth massive surpluses forever.

Two decades of the lottery have left Kentucky poorer and more in debt than ever. Casino gambling would just make that result 10 times worse.

Williams and the Senate repugs did the right thing for the wrong reasons. If only they had a budget plan other than massive cuts and austerity for everyone but themselves.

Casinos to be on Kentucky Ballot in November

Looks like casino gambling is going to be on the ballot in Kentucky this November, driving turnout up and turning the local and state legislative campaigns even more stupid than usual.

From the Herald:

Kentuckians overwhelmingly support putting a casino-gambling constitutional amendment on the November ballot, where it probably would pass, according to a new survey conducted for racetracks and horse-racing interests.

According to numbers released Tuesday, 87 percent of Kentuckians want to vote on a proposed constitutional amendment to allow casino gambling. Only 10 percent of those surveyed said they opposed a vote.

Also, according to the poll released Tuesday, 64 percent would vote in favor of the amendment.

"Once again, a new poll shows Kentuckians demand an opportunity to vote on expanded gaming," Gov. Steve Beshear said. "The call for a direct vote by the people of this state has only gotten stronger over the last few years, and we should not make our citizens wait a moment longer to have their voices heard."

The Family Foundation, a conservative advocacy group that opposes expanded gambling, questioned the poll.

"This survey was bankrolled by the gambling industry," said Martin Cothran, spokesman for The Family Foundation. "It showed what they wanted it to show."

Beshear said one of his top priorities for the upcoming legislative session, which begins Jan. 3, "will be a constitutional amendment to take the gaming question directly to our people. It's time for Kentuckians to decide the state's future on expanded gaming."

Beshear has said that any expansion must include racetracks and the horse industry.

As I noted earlier this month, not only is casino gambling not an economic panacea, it's likely to be even less so in Kentucky as casinos in surrounding states have already sucked up the available business.

I'm tempted to vote for it anyway, if only to drive the freakazoids crazy. But of course the majority of those voting in favor of gambling - and of those who will be taking food out of their children's mouths to lose in the new casinos - will be freakazoid hypocrites. Oops, sorry for the redundancy.

Casino Gambling in Kentucky May Be Too Late To Help Now

I've never been a fan of gambling. I like to bet on the races, but only when I'm there in person to watch. Anything else - meh. Casinos leave me cold.

And I personally witnessed the poverty, crime and desperation of hollowed-out Atlantic City behind the glitzy casinos after they legalized gambling. So I never bought the jobs-n-prosperity lie.

But in the Great Kentucky Casino Debate of 2007-2008, I didn't have much of an argument against the passionate supporters of legalizing slots and casinos who pointed out that neighboring states with casinos were making fortunes off of Kentucky gamblers, and if they're going to gamble their money away, why not keep it in state?

And it is gambling, not "gaming." "Gaming" is a verb meaning cheating, as in "gaming the system."

Now Barefoot and Progressive finds evidence that casinos won't do Kentucky any good now.

Steve Beshear won the Governor’s Mansion in a landslide. Is this a mandate or a rejection of the other guy? Just as he did in 2007, Steve’s testing this boundary with the gambling issue.

Back then, his singular campaign promise failed to come true, blocked in Frankfort and loudly opposed by folks across the state. Can it be different in 2012? Steve’s down to try again:

“I think most folks out there are ready to vote on expanded gambling,” Beshear said. “My preference is for passing something we can get a majority vote on. If that’s legislation, I’m all for it. If that’s a constitutional amendment, I’m all for it. I think it’s a much easier vote to put on the ballot and let the people vote on it.”

He said he has been in talks with Republican and Democratic leaders in both state chambers but has not yet met with Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville. Beshear soundly defeated Williams in the Nov. 8 general election, and Beshear said yesterday that one key difference was their stand on gambling.

Whether it’s going through the legislature or via a constitutional amendment, Beshear thinks (or, says he thinks) the tone has changed and now’s the time.

Gambling’s never been a terrible idea to raise revenue. Some oppose it for religious reasons, others are concerned about gambling addiction. The structure of Beshear’s first administration ideas all sought to feed the money into the thoroughbred industry, which is certainly struggling.

The most sensible argument against Beshear’s gambling plan is that it’s a regressive tax. It seeks to fleece money for revenue from, by and large, the people who struggle the most. Sure, there may be some high-end gamers (What up, David Williams!) but looking at the make-up of this state, the economic situation of its population, Steve Beshear’s plan raises revenue from the wallets of the poor.

If gambling was coupled with actual tax reform then the state could move in the right direction. If it was further augmented with industrial hemp job creation and revenue (what up, James Comer), that would do even more to put Kentucky on its feet.

As it is… Steve Beshear appears aimed for raising taxes only on Kentucky’s working class through regressive gambling. Fair enough. Hopefully it will work, raise money for the state and help the thoroughbred industry.

Here's the problem: because we missed the opportunity four years ago, legalizing casinos today will be the worst of bad bets.

The same Gambling Association report found that of 22 states, eight saw a decrease in tax revenue -- including West Virgina (-7.3%), Illinois (-6.0%) and Indiana (-0.4%). Twelve states saw a decrease in casino jobs -- including West Virginia (-3.4%), Illinois (-2.7%) and Indiana (-10.8%). (There's much more in the full report (PDF) for both sides of the coin... or chip).

While four years ago, we were largely left to believe the prognostications of the Governor and both sides of a very divided argument, now we have twenty-two test scenarios, which we can study and consider. If the projected economic impact stretches over a billion, we have states to check whether that's realistic.

The other question is (and always has been), if the argument currently is that Kentucky tax dollars are being lost to neighboring states with legalized gaming, what is the net effect of creating another state with legalized gaming? As in... Indiana's revenues, for example, are -- by this argument -- beefed up by Kentucky residents' money. If Kentucky legalizes gaming, Indiana not only loses that revenue (which we shouldn't much care about) but are Kentucky's projected gaming figures built on the idea that we'll be receiving neighboring state's gambling dollars? Or are the projected figures weighted heavily and primarily on the backs of Kentucky residents rather than visitors driving across a river or border?

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With all these test cases out there, it should allow for a much more informed debate than the one four years ago. Rather than just relying on the Governor and other advocates figures, they can be checked against how other states have actually fared. And rather than simply relying on the other fact sets offered by those opposed, there is the realities of other states. The question isn’t “Should we or shouldn’t we?” It’s more like, “Does it work?”

And in looking at other states and learning from their lessons, one state that should be looked at very carefully is Kansas. Unlike all the other ones, Kansas legalized casinos with a twist — the state is in charge. Rather than hand over massive profits to the existing casino industry, the thought goes at least, the state maintains that control and thus keeps more of the created revenue.

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The lessons of Kansas aren’t yet clear, but it would be highly irresponsible of Gov. Beshear and everyone else to not look closely at their model and consider how much additional revenue would be created by keeping the money rather than handing it over to the gambling industry.

I'm up for pretty much anything that saves the horse industry, but casinos haven't proven their case.

Fucked-Up Budget of the Millenium

It's one thing to play around with your pet projects when the budget is sound and the economy's humming along, but years of plunging revenue that have the state facing a major budget catastrophe is no time to fly your favorite fiscal fantasies.

Like the magical gambling machines that will make us all millionaires.

Tonight Governor Steve Beshear will do as we all predicted by calling for gambling a third time.

Here are two choice phrases from his budget that are causing dry heaves all across the land (thanks to all who sent it to me):

* “Proposal uses limited gaming, a recurring revenue, to balance”
* “Conservative, responsible approach”

Meanwhile, horse industry insiders tell me that the governor is still impossible to work with and that he refuses to do any heavy lifting. Organizations like KEEP have gone silent over the last few weeks. Democratic legislators left and right are backing away in fear. So this failure should be extra easy.

Grab your ankles and get ready. The deets are coming at 7ish tonight.

Update - By doing this, the governor effectively positions the legislature as the bad guy. Cause they’re now the folks responsible for stripping gambling from the budget. How will the House react? Individual legislators are calling me in the midst of foaming at the mouth.

Only one question remains: Who is the next Republican governor? Crit isn’t running and Greg probably won’t risk it.

BIG UPDATE: Okay, here we go.

Here’s how Beshear is going to try scare people into gambling:

The budget proposal assumes approximately $780 million in revenue from video lottery terminals over the next two years. Without gaming revenue, the cuts to the impacted agencies increase significantly – over 12 percent in the first year of the biennium, and 34 percent in the second year. This comes on top 20 percent to 25 percent cuts many of these agencies have already faced.

“Cuts of this magnitude would undoubtedly lead to mass layoffs and would inflict devastating damage on literally hundreds of critical services to communities and individuals around the Commonwealth, such as prenatal care, water permits, air quality inspections, social workers and fire inspections of public facilities like day-care centers and schools,” Gov. Beshear said.

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Quote of the night:

“We are not in this financial crisis because of our tax structure. And changing our tax structure isn’t going to get us out of this financial crisis.”

Read the whole thing.

Then bend over and kiss your ass good-bye. Face it Kentucky: Governor Steve Beshear is not a member of the reality-based community.

I agree with Jake that Crit Luallen will not run for Governor in 2011, but I disagree with him that Greg Stumbo won't either. I think Stumbo will beat Beshear (or Abramson if Stevie has reached the feces-flinging stage by then) in the primary to face Ritchie Farmer in the general. And if Stumbo loses to Farmer, we're all going to be pining for the halcyon days of the Beshear administration.