Broward moves closer to March vote on slots

FORT LAUDERDALE (FBW)—In a lopsided 8-1 vote Dec. 14, Broward County officials moved closer to holding a March 2005 special election seeking approval from voters to allow four pari-mutuel facilities to install slot machines. The vote follows narrow statewide approval Nov. 2 of a constitutional amendment to permit votes in Broward and Miami-Dade counties for slots.

The action of the Broward County Commission comes months before the Florida Legislature will meet to consider enacting legislation following approval of Amendment 4, which gambling proponents claim will generate as much $500 million annually in tax revenues for public education throughout the state.

According to several published accounts, Miami-Dade officials are also considering a March referendum allowing slot machines.

Broward commissioners directed county staff to draft options for a March vote to be considered during the Commission’s Jan. 11 scheduled meeting. (This issue of the Witness went to press before the meeting.) Only County Mayor Kristin Jacobs opposed the motion introduced by District 1 Commissioner Ilene Lieberman.

In a Dec. 13 interview while traveling to Fort Lauderdale to lobby Broward commissioners before the vote, gambling opponent Paul Seago told Florida Baptist Witness the “race” to put the matter to county voters before the Legislature acts “makes the county look like a shill for the gambling industry.”

Seago, executive director of No Casinos, added that numerous unresolved questions made the push for quick action not “fair to the people” of the county.

According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, county officials are considering a special mail-in vote at a cost of $1.3 million or including the slots question during the March municipal elections at a cost of $2.3 million. County taxpayers will bear the cost for the election, although some commissioners are open to having the pari-mutuel facilities cover the costs, the Sun-Sentinel reported.

“We have a unique window of opportunity where, if we take advantage of it, we can bring in more revenue to the county,” Lieberman told fellow commissioners, according to the Sun-Sentinel.