Georgia casino gambling bill gets committee hearing; Columbus back in mix

The push to get Columbus back in the discussion of proposed casino gambling legislation appears to have paid off on Thursday as the bill’s sponsor said Columbus is back under consideration.

Bill sponsor, Sen. Brandon Beach, R-Alpharetta, took about 15 minutes to outline his legislation for the Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee on Thursday. It was an initial public discussion on the matter and no vote or action was taken by the committee. The bill must pass the committee to be considered by the Senate.

“I want Columbus to have the opportunity to be considered,” Beach said after the hearing.

The original legislation would have only allowed two casino resorts in the state. Population triggers were used in the bill, which would put one in the metro Atlanta area, either in Fulton, Gwinnett or DeKalb counties. The second casino would be limited to the Savannah and the Georgia coast.

Rep. Calvin Smyre, a co-sponsor of a similar bill in the House, and Sen. Ed Harbison, a co-sponsor of the Senate bill considered by the Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee, have fought to have Columbus and other second-tier cities considered should the legislation pass and the matter is put in front of Georgia voters.

Their efforts seem to pay off as Beach presented a substitute bill to the committee. That bill lowered the county population triggers from 250,000 residents to 180,000 people. Muscogee County and Richmond County, where Augusta is located, both have populations of about 200,000 people.

“My thought is it has to be broad enough that were the legislation to pass, Columbus would not be excluded,” Smyre said Thursday afternoon. “It looks like Columbus and Augusta are back in play.”

Harbison and Smyre both had discussions with Beach prior to the bill being presented in committee.

“I expect there will be more tweaking to this bill,” Harbison said. “But this is a pretty good start to the tweaking. ... This is more palatable to us. It now puts us in the mix. If this is going to happen, Columbus needs to have choice.”

Beach told the committee there was a reason for limiting the number of casinos and requiring them to be high-end resorts, as well.

“I don’t think we want slot machines and casinos in every corner of the state,” he said.

Last year, casino gambling legislation did not move in the General Assembly. It never reached the stage of a committee hearing like the one on Thursday.

In November, Columbus Council weighed in on the matter when it approved a resolution in support of legislation that would put casino gambling up for a statewide vote in Georgia. That resolution was requested by Columbus entrepreneur Robert Wright Jr., who told the Ledger-Enquirer that he wanted to bring a $200 million resort casino to south Columbus if the state legalizes gambling.

The amount of the potential casino investment was discussed in front of the committee, which spent about an hour listening to Beach and others who were in favor and some who opposed the legislation.

The minimum investment in metro Atlanta for a casino resort destination, according to the bill, is $2 billion. The minimum investment for the one that appears to target Savannah is $450 million.

Smyre is looking for a lower threshold for Columbus.

“To me, the perfect storm would be a third casino,” Smyre said. “You would have the $2 billion investment in Atlanta, the $450 million in Savannah and $200 million to $250 million on the third tier of this.”

Georgia is a long way from legalizing casino gambling. If the bill passes the General Assembly, it would have to be signed into law by Gov. Nathan Deal. There would then have to be legislation to call for a statewide vote on the matter.

If it were to pass Georgia voters, any jurisdiction that would want a casino, would have to hold an election in that county or city to approve the measure.

The 29-page bill outlines how the state revenue from the casino gambling would be spent. The state would allocate 50 percent to the HOPE scholarship for students who qualify, 30 percent to needs-based scholarships for college and 20 percent to rural health care needs.

The Georgia Baptists, with more than three dozen pastors in the packed committee room, lined up to fight the casino gambling bill on moral grounds. Mike Griffin, public affairs officer for the Georgia Baptist Mission, addressed the committee, saying this is the 21st time his organization has opposed gambling in Georgia since the 1963. The Georgia Baptist Mission represents 1.3 million Georgians and about 3,600 churches.

“We are concerned this issue of money is being put over morality, and the end justifies the means,” Griffin said. “... It’s almost like 30 pieces of silver to everybody to buy them off.”

Griffin urged the lawmakers to kill the bill in committee long before it gets to Georgia voters.

“The fact that we are going to let the people decide, that always seems to be the easy out,” Griffin said. “We are not too far from Easter being here and that is exactly what happened to Jesus.”

Sen. Josh McKoon, R-Columbus, is on the committee hearing the matter.

“I am still skeptical, but I am going to hear it out,” he said. “I am going to listen as it moves through the process.”

McKoon has also been a vocal opponent of the fact that Senate committee hearings are not live-streamed like they are in the House. Thursday, he used Periscope, a live-streaming video service, to show the Senate hearing. At one point, he had more than 350 people watching.

This story was originally published February 9, 2017 at 6:23 PM with the headline "Georgia casino gambling bill gets committee hearing; Columbus back in mix."