repubgazette2-28-07bobadamsmckinneypeanagambling

As reported by The Associated Press this week, the Alliance for Marriage and one of its key officers, West Virginia's Bob Adams, are lobbying state legislatures to support a constitutional ban on gay marriage.

As the AP reported, "The Washington-based Alliance for Marriage wants to build a nationwide network of state lawmakers who would support a constitutional amendment."

The story quotes Adams as saying, "We believe the day is coming when the Marriage Protection

Amendment will be sent to the states. The time to organize for that is now, not 10 years down the road."

Adams, vice president of the Alliance, was the GOP candidate for the 58th Delegate District last year, and has long been a leader on pro-family issues.

The Alliance effort now has individual state legislator members in 14 states, with additional states and individual legislators coming aboard daily. You can read the AP story by clicking here.

State GOP Chairman Doug McKinney said today that now that Democrats have taken care of the special interests who financed their elections, they should turn their attention to issues of concern to average West Virginians.

“The gambling lobbyists, labor bosses and trial lawyers spent hundreds of thousands to elect the Legislature they wanted,” said McKinney. “In return, their issues were put on the fast track. Now, with the little time that’s left, legislators should try to pass a few bills helpful to average West Virginians.”

McKinney urged legislators to cut or eliminate the corporate net income and business franchise taxes, which will help create and maintain jobs in the Mountain State. He also encouraged lawmakers to tighten state abortion laws in regard to parental notification, and to pass a Republican-backed bill to require legislative approval for toll increases on the West Virginia Turnpike.

“More good-paying jobs are the primary need of the people of West Virginia,” said McKinney. “Lawmakers should focus on reducing corporate and business franchise taxes to encourage employers to locate here. Rather than catering to the gambling interests by creating ‘racino’ jobs that will likely disappear in a few short years, the Legislature should focus on creating a playing field that makes West Virginia an attractive locale for business and industry.”

McKinney commended Republican lawmakers for focusing on GOP agenda items like tax reduction, modifying the school aid formula to let local communities keep more money, and making sure employees in the state, as well as those who receive public assistance, are legal citizens.

The owners of video lottery parlors in West Virginia have filed a lawsuit claiming the state Lottery Commission has violated their Constitutional rights, MetroNews reported Tuesday.

Parlor owners say video slot parlors are being treated differently than racetracks where video lottery machines are also available.

"There's an equal protection problem there," said Andrew Schneider of the ACLU, which is siding with the parlor owners. "One set of the business is allowed to engage in unfettered advertising, free and unfettered advertising, and then another set of businesses are completely denied that right."

According to sources, the suit has caused great concern among supporters of gambling legislation working its way through the Legislature, and could derail the process, since there is no doubt that racetracks are treated more favorably under the proposed law than VLT parlors.

By Lisa Peana

In this Legislative session, there are three major bills that have been going though the process that will have an impact of West Virginia Families: gambling, gas taxes and teacher pay raises.

There are a few things to look at in regards to these bills. Let’s start with the table games. More than 10 years ago, the voters of West Virginia voted for a constitutional amendment to allow the lottery. That allowed the purchase of lottery tickets and scratch off tickets found in grocery stores, gas stations, convenience stores, etc. A few sessions ago, the legislature expanded that to video lottery games that are found on every corner in video parlors, bars, and places of the sort. The promise of the lottery was the PROMISE Scholarship to help children to receive money for college. The qualifications continue to become more and more stringent for children to qualify for the scholarship program, in essence reducing the amount of money that is being paid out to help our children get an education.

In this session, Speaker of the House of Delegates Richard Thompson (D-Wayne) has allowed the debate to expand the gambling in our state to table games in four counties. Many argue that this is an unconstitutional maneuver as it is not covered under the current amendment to the state Constitution that deals with gambling. The solution: allow the four counties to vote to allow it. How is that fair to the surrounding counties that will feel the negative impact of gambling but no revenue to pay for it. (i.e. crime rates increasing, negative social impacts etc.)? Amendments have been proposed by Republicans to cut the food tax and the revenue to be replaced by revenue from gambling, or to allow all 55 counties to vote on this issue, whereas this expansion will impact the whole state. None of the amendments proposed were taken seriously into consideration, and in effect had no success.

Where is the table games bill now? In the State Senate. It

has passed both the House Finance and House Judiciary and was passed on a floor vote by majority vote in the House of Delegates. This will definitely be a bill to watch. If modifications are made and passed in the Senate, it will be sent back to the House for passage.

The gas tax Increase by a nickel was passed by the House of Delegates and is on it’s way to the Senate. Mind you, this is a nickel per gallon that is pumped into your gas tank. This revenue is used to pave secondary roads in West Virginia that do not qualify for the federal funding for highways and bridges. The kicker on this bill was a proposal that the State Department of Highways engineers will no longer be the ones to decide which roads to pave, but the Legislature would decide. I guess with the Budget Digest gone, politicians had to find another way to bring home pork and campaign on and promise more to come if re-elected. Senior level Delegates and Senators will have secondary roads paved in their counties while more needy roads in other areas will go without.

Lastly, the teachers in West Virginia have been campaigning and lobbing the State Legislature for pay increases. In the governor’s State of the State address, he had proposed a one time bonus, a small raise and that no teacher will work for less that $30,000 per year in salary. The teachers had rallied and are working for higher wages. The truth of the matter is, if we don’t offer competitive wages, our teachers will leave our state to border states, creating a shortage. Although I am not a proponent of big government or big spending, I do believe that our children deserve the best and we will no longer be able to retain our great teachers or recruit qualified teachers without a competitive pay.

To earn our reputation as a "Wild and 'Wonderful" place to live, we don't need gaming, we don't need to be overtaxed and we DO need top-notch teachers in the classroom. That is what our West Virginia families deserve.

Lisa Peana is the former Republican candidate for the 17th Delegate District and is chairperson of WAYCORE.