IN: Lobbying Team Meets with Senator Ford and Rep. Manning to Discuss Bill
The intent coming out of the meeting is to touch base at the end of October with the goal of submitting the final version of the bill for drafting in the first week of November. The bill cannot be filed until Organization Day.
A couple of central points of the meeting discussion:
*Collective intent from Sen. Ford and Rep. Manning to include iLottery and igaming in the same bill.
*This concept has also now been supported by the Casino Association and other stakeholders as the best path forward to build momentum for the legislation.
*Both legislators were supportive of seeking as much co-author support for the bill in the House as we can, specifically from Rep. Mayfield (Vice Chair of the Public Policy Committee) and Rep. Baird (member of the Ways and Means Committee), both of whom are representatives within Sen. Bray’s Senate district.
Rep. Manning confirmed that Speaker Huston (last week) gave him “a green light” / desire to work on igaming and iLottery at the same time.
The speaker also said he would prefer a unified AGR tax rate instead of 3 different rates (i.e., one for casinos, one for sports wagering, one for igaming); but he also didn’t seem super committed to insisting that unified tax rate be a part of the bill.
The Speaker asked Manning to confer with the House fiscal analyst (Ben Tooley) on the bill ASAP. The Speaker also expressed a preference that Manning work out a deal with the horsemen and maybe even local communities (on revenue sharing issues) ahead of filing the bill.