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Sports betting bill coming, lawmakers say

Gambling, voting rights focus of Eggs and Issues

Every Iowan who wants to place a bet on their favorite baseball or football team would be impacted by a proposal that area lawmakers expect to spend a lot of time on during this year’s legislative session.

“This will probably be the biggest gambling bill we’ve done in 20 years,” state Rep. Mike Sexton, R-Rockwell City, said Saturday morning.

During an Eggs and Issues forum in Fort Dodge, Sexton; state Rep. Ann Meyer, R-Fort Dodge; and state Sen. Tim Kraayenbrink, R-Fort Dodge; all said they believe the sports betting bill will get considerable attention this year. But with the 2019 legislative session just two weeks old, none of the local lawmakers have any details on what the bill may contain.

Also during the forum, Meyer said she is in favor of a proposal from Gov. Kim Reynolds that would restore the voting rights of felons.

Kraayenbrink and Sexton stopped short of endorsing the plan, and Kraayenbrink said he wants more information on the applicatons filed by convicted felons seeking to have their voting rights restored.

The senator, who is the vice chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he has spent about 90 percent of his time in the Capitol so far on education spending. He said the annual figure for any increase in state supplemental aid to public schools must be set within 30 days of the start of the session.

“We are getting ready to go to the House with some of our numbers,” he said.

About 40 people attended the forum in the Bioscience and Health Sciences Building at Iowa Central Community College. Eggs and Issues is sponsored by the Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance and the college.

Gambling

“It’s already happening, so we might as well legalize it so we can get control of it,” Sexton said of sports betting following the forum Saturday.

While the details of the legislation still remain undetermined, Sexton predicted that it will be a “huge bill.” He said various interests are already trying to influence the measure without even seeing a word of it.

“People are already lining up to tweak their little piece of it or to get a bigger percentage or to take somebody else’s money,” he said.

Because of the expected scope of the bill, a five-member House subcommittee has been appointed to consider it. That’s unusual, Sexton said, because most House subcommittees have three members.

Meyer said she wants to learn a lot more about the gambling issue.

“I don’t have a lot of gambling background other than scratch-off tickets,” she said.

Kraayenbrink said he believes the sports betting bill “has some momentum.”

Voting rights for felons

During her Condition of the State Address on Jan. 15, Reynolds said she would introduce a plan to restore the voting rights of convicted felons.

Lawmakers are awaiting the details of her plan, but Meyer said she supports the governor’s idea.

“I do believe in second chances,” she said. “If people have done their time and paid their restitution, I do think that they should have voting rights restored.”

Sexton noted that the governor already has the power to restore the voting rights of convicted felons on a case-by-case basis.

“I don’t actually understand what the governor’s trying to get to because she can do that now,” he said.

Kraayenbrink also said that the governor has the power to restore a convicted felon’s voting rights. He said he wants to see some data on how many applications Reynolds has received from convicted felons seeking to get their voting rights reinstated. He added that he thinks people seeking restoration of their rights should take the initiative to file all the necessary documents.

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