Gambling negotiations broke down this morning after the Senate reversed an earlier offer to the House limiting an expansion of gaming for the Seminoles and instead allowing them to have blackjack and all banked card games at each of their seven facilities.

And the latest Senate plan would also allow Palm Beach Kennel Club to have electronic slot machines if voters approve, something they had taken off the table.

“Mr. Chairman I appreciate your offer but I will say that it appears the Senate, with all due respect and notwithstanding your brief explanation, is moving backwards. Backwards from where we want to go in an expansion standpoint. Backwards from where the House is heading. And I’ll look at your offer and we will let you know if it’s necessary to meet further,” Galvano, R-Bradenton, said after his Senate counterpart J.D. Alexander quickly read through “Senate Offer #4.”

“Thank you very much,” Alexander, R-Lake Wales, said.
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After three meetings today, House and Senate leaders remain sharply divided over a gambling proposal.

Appearances by Gov. Charlie Crist and Lt. Gov Jeff Kottkamp, who showed up twice, did little or nothing to bring the two sides closer together on whether the Seminoles should be allowed to offer blackjack and slots at their Hard Rock resorts.

The House made few concessions in their third offer at the day’s final meeting, signing off on minor issues but refusing to grant the Seminoles the right to hold tabled card games.

Lawmakers are trying to come up with a replacement compact after the Florida Supreme Court tossed out an agreement between the tribe and Crist allowing blackjack, baccarat and chemin de fer at its casinos.

After the ruling, the tribe continued to operate the games at the Hard Rock near Hollywood and started running them in their Tampa facility.

Rep. Bill Galvano, the House’s chief gambling negotiator, said that granting the tribe permission to have the games was tantamount to “rewarding bad behavior.”

Crist said the House should approve the compact “cuz the kids need the money” for education but bristled when asked about Galvano’s remarks.

“That’s up to them to decide. It’s in their hands,” he said.

Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander, who had been negotiating throughout the day on gambling, tobacco taxes and the budget, left hurriedly after the meeting looking displeased with “House Offer #3.”

Alexander, R-Lake Wales, had counted on up to $500 million from the Seminoles for education spending. Lawmakers may need to return to Tallahassee for a special session on gambling if they do not reach consensus before Friday, the last day of the extended session.

House and Senate leaders opened negotiations on gambling doing little to resolve their differences but meeting at last.

Gambling talks between the chambers have been on hold since Friday. Their task: craft a plan that addresses games at the Seminole casino resorts and the state’s dog and horse tracks and reaps the biggest rewards for the state.

Still up in the air: which games the Seminoles will be allowed to operate at their casino resorts, a possible expansion of blackjack for dog and horse tracks in Broward and Miami-Dade counties and how much revenue to demand from the tribe.

“There’s a lot of meat left on the bone,” the House’s chief gambling negotiator Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, said after the meeting.

Galvano and his Senate counterpart J.D. Alexander did agree to limit a compact with the Seminoles to 15 years instead of the 25 years the tribe had sought and which was included in the original deal signed by Gov. Charlie Crist. The Florida Supreme Court tossed that.
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Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander and House gambling negotiator Bill Galvano won’t meet tonight.

Instead, Alexander is expected to respond to the House’s counter-offer tomorrow morning at 9 a.m.

No details yet on what the more gaming-tolerant Senate will have in its plan, but it’s likely to reject the House’s opening bid of blackjack only in Broward, for both the Seminoles and the pari-mutuels. The tribe isn’t likely to sign off on that, either.

Galvano said he has until noon to make headway with Alexander before House Speaker Larry Cretul takes over to negotiate with Senate President Jeff Atwater.

Alexander has been at the Capitol nearly 18 hours a day for weeks crafting the budget and worked throughout the weekend, finally closing out most of it at 6 p.m. this evening.

Galvano caught himself when explaining why he wanted the Senate’s offer tonight: so he can reject it.

“While they’re working on bills in the morning, we can regroup on the House side and maybe make a counter. I guess that’s a bit pessimistic to say make a counter, right?” Galvano, R-Bradenton, said.

The man with the red pen delivered a subtle yet unquestionable threat to lawmakers over a dangling deal with the Seminoles.

House and Senate leaders have yet to start meeting to work out their differences on a gambling proposal encompassing a deal with the tribe and the state’s horse and dog tracks and jai-alai frontons.

A deal with the Seminoles could reap up to $500 million a year for the state depending on what lawmakers settle on, if anything. They have until Friday to pass a compact that Gov. Charlie Crist and the tribe must then agree to.

Crist, whose compact with the tribe was thrown out by the Florida Supreme Court, suggested that lawmakers finish up the deal…or else.

“If it doesn’t happen, I may have to cut things out of this budget that are put in there. The members are acutely cognizant of that. There are important things that they want to do around the state and that I want them to do,” Crist said this morning as he dropped in on a budget conference meeting. “In some ways the Seminole compact money gives us the opportunity to do some of that.”

Crist said it wasn’t a threat.

“No, no. That’s not what I meant. But it’s just reality,” he insisted.

Blackjack and slots are off the table for Palm Beach County but a second dog track is now in the cards.

The PBC provisions are included in a House counteroffer on gambling offered this afternoon that would also allow Broward’s dog track and two horse tracks to offer blackjack. The proposal would limit blackjack at the Seminole Tribe’s casinos to the Hollywood Hard Rock.

But the tribe could not run the card game anywhere else and the state’s other pari-mutuels wouldn’t be able to offer it either under the House’s counteroffer on gambling.

Allowing blackjack anywhere was a big move for the House, the chamber’s chief gambling negotiator said.

“This is not the time in the game to just be taking nibbles so we made a decision to make a move pretty much to the brink of where we can,” said Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton. “But if we are to get some resolution that that provision would have to come into play.”

The House rejected the Senate’s opening bid that would allow the Palm Beach Kennel Club to have slot machines if voters approved it.
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House and Senate negotiators are getting nowhere settling a gambling deal with the Seminole Tribe of Florida and making changes for dog and horse tracks.

They met only once since given the task Wednesday of bringing the chambers closer together on schismatic proposals that on the Senate side opened gambling wide open and on the House side clamped down.

The House never responded to the Senate’s opening bid Wednesday night and it appears doubtful the committee will get much further, if at all, today.

They’ll bump the issue to Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander and one of the House chiefs, Alexander said.

Alexander said he’s one of the “few folks that’s not beholden to any of the interests” angling for help on gambling. Some Miami-Dade County lawmakers are looking for a way to reopen Hialeah Race Park. They and some Broward County lawmakers want something to help their pari-mutuels compete with the Seminoles, as do some Tampa Bay officials. The Palm Beach Kennel Club hopes to add something to its gambling arsenal. Central Florida pols want to keep the state’s multi-billion thoroughbred industry alive.

On top of that, lawmakers are trying to come up with something the Seminoles will agree to that will also be lucrative for the state. The Senate is counting on using money from a gambling deal with the tribe to put into savings.

Earlier in the week, Senate President Jeff Atwater said the task would be a “very, very heavy lift.”

It doesn’t appear lighter thus far.

“Hope springs eternal but all I can do is my best,” said Alexander, R-Lake Wales.

The Senate approved its version of a trying to help horse and dog tracks but the fight over gambling is far from over.

In fact, it’s just beginning.

The Senate stripped the House’s bill and replaced it with its own language that would give horse and dog tracks throughout the state the ability to operate slots-like machines.

The House version does not include that provision but raises the stakes in card games like Texas Hold ‘Em.

But the bill’s passage means next to nothing.

A bicameral committee charged with ironing out differences between the two chambers regarding pari-mutuel gaming and a deal with the Seminole Tribe of Florida held its first – and brief – meeting this morning.

They opened the ante at square one. The House wants no card games for the Seminoles but limit them to Las Vegas-style slot machines. The Senate offered to let them keep the blackjack and other card games they now have plus give them roulette and craps.

The House is likely to say no dice to the roulette and craps but may cave on blackjack.

Lawmakers can’t complete their business on the budget before the session is slated to end next Friday, Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson said this morning at a caucus meeting.

“It’ll be probably almost impossible for us to get out of here really next week,” Lawson, D-Tallahassee, said. “It looks very doubtful that we are going to be able to do that.”

Lawson based his prediction on a conversation with Senate President Jeff Atwater late last evening, he said.

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Gov. Charlie Crist will announce a new wrinkle in negotiations with the Seminole Indians where the tribe is expected to up the amount of money it gives the state to get a gambling deal at its Hard Rock resorts.

The Seminoles will likely agree to pay the state at least twice the $100 million per year for education they previously agreed to in a compact tossed out by the Florida Supreme Court last year.

The tribe could ante up as much as $500 million or make two years of payments immediately in an effort to get lawmakers to sign off on a deal allowing them to continue running Las Vegas-style slot machines and tabled card games including blackjack and baccarat, sources close to the negotiations said today.

Crist did not provide details but said that he would make an announcement about a revised compact tomorrow.

While the House and Senate have moved forward with their disparate compact plans, Crist has continued negotiations with the tribe.

“I favor the original approach. I think if we have some more news tomorrow that could even be better,” Crist said this evening.

He acknowledged the news would involve more money up front but would not say how much more.

“Yes. Yes. Yes. I don’t know if it’s going to be considerable, though. I would attach that caveat to it. I just don’t know yet,” he said.

Gov. Charlie Crist and the Seminole tribe are continuing discussions about a gambling compact even as lawmakers in the House and Senate remain at odds about the issue.

Crist’s office has met throughout the week with tribal representatives and wants the Seminoles to put more money up front to be able to continue the blackjack and baccarat card games they are now hosting at the tribe’s Hard Rock casinos.

Rumors have been flying around the Capitol that the state is seeking a $1 billion down payment from the tribe, but those close to the talks on both sides say that figure is way too high.

The money would go to pay for education as lawmakers struggle to close a $7 billion spending gap.

House gambling go-to-guy Bill Galvano said that if the cash advance is enough and the Indians aren’t asking for something “crazy” in return (like roulette and craps?) he’d consider the proposal.
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Gov. Charlie Crist urged House leaders to adopt a Senate gambling plan allowing the Seminole tribe to offer full-fledged casinos complete with roulette and craps.

Details of the House’s plan are sketchy but so far they aren’t even offering the tribe the tabled card games, including blackjack, they already have.

The Senate Regulated Industries Committee yesterday approved a proposal by chairman Dennis Jones that he said would generate $1 billion a year for education.

The Florida Supreme Court tossed Crist’s agreement with the Seminole Tribe of Florida giving them slots and the card games and now lawmakers are trying to come up with one of their own.

The disparity between the House and Senate plans put a replacement compact in doubt.

Crist didn’t see it that way, though.
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The Senate moved forward with a potential deal that would give the Seminole tribe the ability to offer roulette and craps and some Florida racetracks to host blackjack.

The Senate Regulated Industries Committee approved a pair of bills (SB 788, SB 836) sponsored by committee chairman Dennis Jones this morning that he said could raise $1 billion a year for state schools.

Greenacres Democrat Dave Aronberg cast the sole vote against the bill effectively allowing the Seminoles to operate full-fledged casinos because, he said, of the potential negative impacts on other businesses such as convention centers.

“Plus I don’t think we need to go there to maximize revenue for the state of Florida,” Aronberg said.
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The state will have whopping $3 billion budget gap next year if it only spends money on “bare bones” items, according to Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander.

That would mean paying only for fluff-free things like constitutionally mandated programs and those required to bring in federal dollars.

And that’s including the addition of more than $3 billion in federal stimulus money over the next two years.

That leaves lawmakers no other choice than to raise revenues, the conservative citrus baron said, even if they cut back on spending.

And adding in Gov. Charlie Crist’s recommendation to take more than $200 million from the Seminoles from a gambling compact and sweep trust funds still leaves Crist’s budget proposal more than $1 billion short.

“I think it will be very difficult to find sufficient recurring cuts to make this $3 billion, or $2.5 if you count the compact revenues, without some revenues,” Alexander, R-Lake Wales said. “I tend to think we’ll ultimately have to have a mix of revenues and some reductions.”

Sen. Ted Deutch will be “deeply involved” in the Senate’s involvement in forging a deal with the Seminole Tribe of Florida regarding gambling at its casino resorts.

The Boca Raton Democrat serves as vice-chairman of the Regulated Industries Committee, which has heard appeals from both the Seminoles and the pari-mutuel industry, whose operators claim that approving Gov. Charlie Crist’s agreement with the tribe would put them out of business.

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Read our story about the speech here and go to The Forum to see what the state’s top political strategists thought about Crist’s address.

Gov. Charlie Crist’s upbeat state-of-the state speech highlighted his budget recommendations and pushed lawmakers to approve three deals _ the CSX/Central Florida commuter rail, the Seminole gambling compact and the U.S. Sugar purchase _ that would cost the state more than $3 billion.

He encouraged Floridians and elected officials to “lift from our shoulders fear and pessimism and take up the mantle of persistence and determination” and pushed lawmakers to be more bipartisan.

“We should not ask what it means to be Republican nor should we ask what it means to be Democratic but rather we should ask what it means to be a good decent human being,” he advised.

But both Republicans and Democrats reacted to Crist’s speech with considerable skepticism.

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Gov. Charlie Crist conceded today that at least $135 million of the money in his budget fix for the $2.3 billion deficit is wishful thinking.
Crist stuck in the proceeds from Seminole gambling despite repeated assertions from Senate President Jeff Atwater and House Speaker Ray Sansom that the Jan. 5 special budget-cutting session won’t include the Seminole gambling compact, meaning that money won’t be available.
Crist acknowledged the legislative leaders’ reluctance despite his desire for the issue to be resolved “sooner rather than later.”
So why did Crist and his staff include it in his proposal?
“Because hope springs eternal. We never give up,” he said.

Gov. Charlie Crist this morning said this morning he was “disappointed but respectful” that Attorney General and fellow Republican Bill McCollum on Thursday asked federal prosecutors to shut down the Seminole casino games that Crist negotiated with the tribe.
Told that Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, was wary of including the gambling compact in the 12-day special session that starts Jan. 5, Crist said, “I respect that.”
“I think he is amenable and I think, you know, if we have to wait until the regular session for a compact, that’s fine. I’d like it sooner, but that’s okay,” he said.

Gulfstream racetrack asked the Florida Supreme Court to shut down the Seminole’s gambling activities until a new compact is reached.
Lawyers for the Broward pari-mutuel filed the request today, the same day Attorney General Bill McCollum asked a federal prosecutor to go after the Seminole Tribe of Florida for continuing to operate Las Vegas-style slot machines and card games, including blackjack, at three of its casinos.
“In my constitutional role as Florida’s chief legal officer, I am deeply concerned that the Tribe continues to defiantly ignore the decision of the Florida Supreme Court. There can be no dispute that operating banked card games is contrary to Florida law,” McCollum wrote
to Brian Albritton, U.S. Attorney for the Florida’s Middle District, which includes Tampa and Immokalee, where the tribe operates casinos.

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