DEAR SENATOR

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMPACT OF MIDWEST/MIDEAST STATES (EDCMMS)

Serving Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia since 1990, with offices in Springfield, Indianapolis, Lansing, Columbus, Harrisburg, and Charleston 

June 23, 2009

 TO:                 Honorable Charlie Borders, Kentucky State Senate

FROM:           William David, Executive Director, EDCMMS

SUBJECT:     Rejection of Slots Bill

On behalf of the government, business, and union leaders—and, most of all, the people–of the six states in our economic development compact, we thank you profusely Senator Borders for yesterday’s courageous work of your Budget Committee.   Unlike Kentucky, which can afford to be selective in the industries it wants, our member states have been devastated by the current worldwide economic downturn, the closure of automobile plants, outsourcing, and intensifying global competition.   In view of this malaise, your assistance in keeping our racing/gaming enterprises growing is appreciated so much so that I cannot put it into appropriate words.   I see that, incredibly, you were able to get the senator representing the Bluegrass region itself to vote no on the slots proposal.   What a master political stroke!

I know that it took fortitude for you and your colleagues to begin to dismantle the Commonwealth’s 150-year-old signature industry, by rejecting racetrack slots, especially since opinion polls show that the majority of adult Kentuckians favor them.   Sometimes democracy is messy and it is best if those in the know, those with a functioning moral compass, make decisions that save citizens from their own misplaced desires.

I can fully appreciate that you view gaming as “evil” and believe that the jobs and tax revenues that will be lost by Kentuckians are a necessary concession to what is right.   To digress, if you ever want to rid your state of other undesirable industries, we at EDCMMS would like to talk with you about the Toyota plant in Georgetown, the Corvette facility in Bowling Green, and the Ford truck plants in Louisville.   As you know, these produce cars that pollute, waste depleted resources, and kill people.   Also, we are particularly interested in the Brown-Forman headquarters in Louisville, the nefarious purveyor of Jack Daniels and other corrupting spirits.   Sorry, Senator,we don’t have an interest in taking your state’s tobacco companies off your hands, as we see that as a passé hedonistic business with lots of legal liability.

In return for your support on the slots bill, several of the casinos and racinos in EDCMMS states are eager to employ some of the experienced personnel that will be dislocated from Turfway Park, Ellis Park, and Churchill Downs, which, as you are aware, are proximate to nearby casinos.   We think that this is the least we owe you.   Moreover, if Ohio gets racetrack slots soon, as hoped for, we anticipate an increase in business from Kentucky residents at River Downs in Cincinnati.

With warm personal regards, WD.

cc: Governors Steve Beshear (KY), Pat Quinn (IL), Mitch Daniels (IN), Jennifer Granholm (MI), Ted Strickland (OH), Ed Rendell (PA), Joe Machin (WV), members of Kentucky State Senate

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