OHIO LEGISLATURE Motion keeps video slots proposal alive

Backers of the slots plan will also try to understand the objections of the education community.
By JEFF ORTEGA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
COLUMBUS -- An attempt to resurrect a proposal to let voters decide whether to allow video slot machines at Ohio's horse racing tracks keeps the issue alive for now, a lawmaker says.
Democratic Reps. Claudette Woodard of Cleveland Heights, Annie Key of Cleveland and Barbara Sykes of Akron earlier this week used a procedural maneuver to ask the House to reconsider last week's vote on the slot-machine proposal.
The vote came just before the GOP-dominated House recessed for the summer; it fell three votes short of the three-fifths majority needed to place the video slot-machine plan on the November ballot.
Sykes, who voted against placing the issue on the ballot, said her new motion "will open up discussion again and will bring more people to the table." She said she may not change her vote.
Woodard and Key did not return calls Thursday seeking comment.
Possible recall
State Rep. Bill Seitz, a Cincinnati Republican who has worked on the slot-machine proposal, says he believes legislative leaders will recall lawmakers from summer recess in time to make the Aug. 4 deadline to place the issue on the November statewide ballot if slot-machine proponents have enough votes.
Republican House Speaker Larry Householder has indicated he is unlikely to recall lawmakers before the fall.
"We will have to see," Seitz said.
Lawmakers have scheduled voting sessions tentatively for September, November and December, which would be the final voting sessions of the 125th General Assembly.
Seitz said an informal group of lawmakers supportive of placing the slots-plan before voters will continue to meet throughout the summer and will continue to try and persuade those who voted & quot;no & quot; to reconsider their position.
Backers of the slots plan will also try to understand the objections of the education community, Seitz said.
Just hours before the House voted last Thursday on the proposal, the state's major education groups hand-delivered a letter to lawmakers that said a campaign to pass the slots initiative could damage public education.
The proposal would have divided the state's share of the slot-machine take for scholarships, preschool education and school grants.
If slots proponents don't make the August deadline, they could aim to place the issue before voters next March, Seitz said.
Separately, a group is calling for state passage of a proposal to allow development of casinos in Ohio cities that want them with only a vote by the people of the city or county involved.
There was no immediate sign that lawmakers would move on the proposal by a group calling itself Casinos For Ohio Committee.