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Saturday, February 21, 2004
Lobbyists hit racino jackpot
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AUGUSTA — Twenty-one lobbyists representing 10 racino interests were paid more than $90,000 in January to lobby lawmakers on a handful of legislation, including Gov. John Baldacci's bill to tighten state controls on racinos. A review of monthly lobbyist reports by the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram shows that most of that money - about $56,000 - went to lobbyists for companies affiliated with Shawn Scott, who signed a deal with the city of Bangor last year to have one of his companies, Bangor Historic Track, open a racino there. Scott is selling Bangor Historic Track to Penn National Gaming of Pennsylvania, which paid its lobbyists $18,750 in January. The finance reports document a high-priced lobbying campaign that is unusual in the Legislature, where more mundane work typically attracts few paid lobbyists. The fight over this bill takes on added significance because it has triggered charges that the committee reviewing the bill met illegally at least once to escape the crush of lobbyists. The battle is expected to get much costlier before the Legislature finally votes. The Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee is still grappling with the issue, so lobbying at the State House has remained intense this month. Committee votes may come next week, setting the stage for later votes in the House and Senate. "I've called it a full-employment program" for lobbyists, said Jadine O'Brien, a lobbyist for Race Maine Stables of Westbrook. The lobbying has been so intense that the legislative committee met briefly in a locked office Wednesday to get away from "the lobby." The private meeting angered one of the panel members, Rep. Kevin Glynn, R-South Portland, who arrived late and protested the setup when he got there. Glynn dashed off a three-page complaint Friday to the Senate president and the House speaker. Sen. Kenneth Gagnon, D-Waterville, who co-chairs the committee, has apologized for the closed session. The heavy and costly lobbying on the governor's gambling bill underscores the fact that the legislation would regulate a potentially lucrative business that may help revive the struggling harness-racing industry. Some estimates claim that a fully operational racino in Bangor could pull in $100 million a year in gross revenues. The governor's bill, which is designed to strengthen state oversight of racinos, would lift the Maine Harness Racing Commission's jurisdiction over slot machines by creating a Gambling Control Board to license and regulate slots. Unresolved issues include how big the promoter's take should be, how much money the state should get, what the state should do with its share, and whether Scarborough Downs should be given more time to find a racino site in southern Maine. Baldacci drafted the bill after voters approved a ballot question in November allowing harness tracks to install slots if they won local approval by Dec. 31, 2003. Scarborough Downs failed to win approval in Scarborough, Saco or Westbrook by that deadline, but Bangor voters approved a racino there in June. The legislative committee held a long hearing on the bill Jan. 7, and it has met several times since then to discuss possible changes to the bill. Those meetings have attracted a standing-room-only crowd of registered lobbyists, as well as horsemen, breeders and others with a direct stake in the outcome. Veteran legislators say they have rarely seen so many lobbyists working on one bill, and that has created problems that are both serious and comic. "If you leave there in a hurry to go to the bathroom, you're not going to make it" because lobbyists routinely accost legislators outside the committee room, said Rep. Patricia Blanchette, D-Bangor. "You have to pre-plan." Glynn, in his letter to legislative leaders, said the committee "has been under attack by extreme lobbying techniques" from the governor's staff, paid lobbyists and others. "It is impossible for any committee member to enter or exit the room without being verbally attacked for any statement we make," Glynn wrote. "I, personally, have never felt so much pressure by so many paid lobbyists in my political career in the State House." Other committee members agree that special interests, both paid and unpaid, have been forceful in making their case. In addition to lobbyists representing Scott and Penn National, others on hand for recent committee meetings represent Scarborough Downs, the city of Bangor, the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes, off-track betting parlors, horsemen, horse breeders, agricultural fairs, gambling-equipment manufacturers and anti-gambling groups. "I think this is a significant public issue" because of its economic impact in the Bangor area and the fact that the legislation would make changes in a voter-approved law, said Bruce Gerrity, a lobbyist for one of Scott's companies. Opponents of gambling believe they have a lot at stake, too, in some cases because they want the Legislature to order another referendum on any changes it may approve. Some of the activists do not meet the legal definition of a lobbyist. The law says that any person who is paid to lobby for more than eight hours a month must register with the state and file monthly reports. But even the unpaid activists who are not lobbyists in the legal sense are lobbying in the practical sense. At least some members of the committee seem to take their sudden popularity in stride, and the pleadings of lobbyists with a grain of salt. "The people I listen to the most are not paid at all," said Rep. Gary Moore, R-Standish. "They are not on the clock. Their opinions are not bought and paid for." Staff Writer Paul Carrier can be contacted at 622-7511 or at:
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