For the fifth time, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge on Wednesday rejected proposed ballot language for a constitutional amendment advanced by the Driving Arkansas Forward committee that would authorize the creation of casinos to raise more money for highways.
Four of the five rejections have been for the committee's proposal that would authorize one casino each in Pope and Jefferson counties, one at Oaklawn Racing and Gaming in Hot Springs and one at Southland Gaming and Racing in West Memphis. The committee's initial proposal would have authorized three casinos.
While existing state law doesn't allow for stand-alone casinos, it permits electronic games of skill that now exist at Oaklawn and Southland Park.
Rutledge's certification of the ballot title and popular name is required to clear the way for the committee to begin collecting 84,859 valid signatures of registered voters by July 6 to qualify the proposal for the Nov. 6 general election ballot. The popular name briefly describes the proposal, and a ballot title is a lengthier summary and both appear on the ballots.
In her decision issued late Wednesday afternoon, Rutledge said the ambiguities in the committee's proposed ballot language are sufficiently serious to require her to reject the wording.
"Your proposed popular name and ballot title refer to the authorization of four casino licenses," she wrote in a six-page letter to attorney Alex Gray, who represents the Driving Arkansas Forward committee.
"But under the measure itself, the [Arkansas Racing] Commission is required to issue four licenses; and the two franchise holders [Oaklawn and Southland] are automatically each awarded a license. Characterizing the proposed amendment as one to authorize the casino licenses is therefore misleading, in my opinion."
Rutledge's action came a day after she declined to certify proposed ballot language for a different proposed constitutional amendment that would authorize the creation of four casinos at specific locations in Benton, Boone, Miller and Pulaski counties to raise more money for highways.
In a decision issued Tuesday, she rejected a popular name and ballot title for a proposed constitutional amendment for the Arkansas Wins in 2018 Inc. ballot committee.
The four casinos would be located on 247 acres in Siloam Springs in Benton County, about 62 acres in Omaha in Boone County, about 35 acres in Texarkana in Miller County, and about 200 acres at 14121 Lawson Road in unincorporated Pulaski County. Each property would be subject to an agreement to be purchased by Arkansas Gaming and Resorts LLC, according to the committee's proposal.
In a letter to attorney Randy Bynum, Rutledge wrote that "yet the voters are given no information in the ballot title as to who owns this LLC, who its members are and generally who would stand to benefit financially from the adoption of this constitutional amendment."
Metro on 05/10/2018