The House's lead gaming negotiator and the Seminole Tribe appear to be inching toward a gaming agreement as lawmakers kick off the 2010 legislative session.
House Gaming Chairman Bill Galvano met with Gov. Charlie Crist, a major proponent of a gaming compact, Wednesday and said the meeting was mainly to ensure the governor that the House is still interested in pursuing an agreement. There are still no details as to what the lawmakers or the Seminoles might be willing to do to come to an agreement, but the sides are actually talking to each other directly instead of going through the governor's office.
"It's premature to say we have actual parameters," Galvano told reporters after the meeting. "At this point we've talked in generalities, we've reiterated the importance of complying with federal and state law and the issues that has presented to the members."
The negotiations with the tribe have been going on for years, and Crist first inked a deal with the tribe in 2007, but the Supreme Court invalidated the compact and said the Legislature must approve any financial deal with the Seminoles. After months of working on a replacement that was suitable to lawmakers, a House panel led by Galvano unanimously shot down the governor's proposal.
The major difference between Crist's deal and the one lawmakers want is that the governor's compact would expand the availability of banked card games like blackjack to all seven Seminole casinos in the state, while the Legislature originally only wanted to extend that offer to casinos in Broward and Hillsborough counties.
According to estimates from the Office of Economic and Demographic Research released earlier this year, the governor's deal could bring in $811.7 million by fiscal year 2013. The deal as the Legislature envisioned it would bring in $802 million.
Up until now, Crist's office was seen largely as the go between for the Legislature and the tribe. But now, Galvano said, the two groups are talking more directly.
"For whatever reason, I think we're willing to talk at a different level than we have in the past," Galvano said. "And also understand, more in the past, it's been more the governor's negotiation with a post participation by the Legislature."
Barry Richard, an attorney for the tribe, said the negotiations have improved from the tribe's perspective as well.
"In the past we were sort of passing in the night," he said.
But neither side will say exactly where they are willing to budge. Galvano has said the committee's "no" vote to the most recent proposal was not a "line in the sand," but did not elaborate on the issue.
Richard said the tribe has already made a number of concessions throughout the past year including guaranteeing that the tribal casinos would up their annual promise to the state from $100 million to $150 million.
"The tribe gave a great deal," he said.
In Crist's State of the State speech Tuesday night, he again called on the Legislature to pass a gaming compact. In the governor's proposed budget, he based his education budget on potential gaming dollars. Key budget players have said they will not base the education budget on potential gaming money that's not yet there.
