STATE TO VOTE ON GAMING APRIL 5

JEFFERSON CITY - Thirteen days after the Missouri Supreme Court dealt riverboat gambling in Missouri a severe blow, the state legislature finalized a constitutional amendment that will address the court's concerns.

The amendment was passed on the deadline for Secretary of State Judi Moriarty to get documents out to 116 election authorities around Missouri for the April 5 election.

"I think we have dealt with the problems raised by the court," said Rep. Mary Kasten, R-Cape Girardeau. "I think it is correctly drawn now and it is up to the people to give their opinion once again on whether we should have this."

Rep. Dennis Ziegenhorn, D-Sikeston, added, "I am pleased we got it done and reacted quickly to the court decision. We met our deadline and now it is back in the hands of the people in April to make a decision."

Both houses passed slightly different versions of a joint resolution to amend the constitution last week. Early Monday afternoon, the House rejected the Senate version, sending it to a conference committee.

The House approved the conference report 104-44, but the measure quickly drew fire in the Senate because of concerns that wording in the bill did not clearly restrict gambling to the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, explained that several senators feared that the wording was loose enough to enable the legislature to come back later and open up gambling to other parts of the state, such as the Lake of the Ozarks.

The Senate sent it back to conference where problems with the wording were corrected at a committee meeting in the office of House Speaker Bob Griffin. The final version passed the House 107-48 and minutes later the Senate approved it by a vote of 23-10.

Kasten said she was pleased that wording was clarified to limit gambling to the two rivers. "I was pleased with that because that is just what the people had voted on when they approved the referendum in November of 1992," Kasten said.

Rep. Larry Thomason, D-Kennett, chaired the meeting of the Joint Committee on Legislative Research which took the final action that sent the documents to the secretary of state.

Thomason's committee was charged with drafting the ballot language, and completed its work in about 15 minutes, sending it to Moriarty just before 7 p.m. where couriers were waiting to start delivery. Documents must be delivered by 5 p.m. today.

Thomason said the ballot language has to be less than 35 words. Several drafts had been prepared over the last few days so quick action could be taken.

He said the delay in getting the bill out of the legislature Monday was based only on concerns by some senators that gambling could be legalized at the Lake of the Ozarks.

"There was never any disagreement over what we were doing, just a question of whether the language did what we think it does," explained Thomason.

Moriarty kept her office open in anticipation of legislative action.

"Praise the Lord -- they got out," said Moriarty, minutes after the documents left her office aboard a courier truck. "It was kind of nerve-wracking, but they got out in time."

Still unclear is whether local governments which approved the local option for riverboats since 1992 must have another election.

"Some think you have to, some think you don't. There is no consensus on this," said Speaker Griffin, a lawyer.

Thomason said he is satisfied that no one will have to revote. "First, we had an attorney general's opinion Thursday that said we don't have to. We spent a lot of time today getting other legal thoughts on that and nobody has argued the point; there will be no requirement for local people to re-vote. As far as we're concerned, it is a moot point."

The proposed amendment, which takes a simple majority, reads: "The General Assembly is authorized to permit only upon the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, lotteries, gift enterprises and games of skill or chance to be conducted on excursion gambling boats and floating facilities."

Some information was provided by The Associated Press.