A plan to legalize sports betting in Iowa appears to face an uncertain future in the state Legislature, and at least one lawmaker from the Fort Dodge area thinks it will fail.

“Two-to-one odds it’s not going to pass anyway,” state Rep. Rob Bacon, R-Slater, said Saturday morning during an Eggs and Issues forum.

Bacon said if the measure passes, he will draft a resolution calling for disgraced baseball star Pete Rose to be enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Rose was banned from the sport for betting on baseball games.

Also during the forum, local lawmakers defended a new proposal regarding solar panels and spoke about efforts to craft the state budget for the next fiscal year.

Bacon was joined at the forum by state senators Tim Kraayenbrink, R-Fort Dodge, and Jerry Behn, R-Boone; along with fellow state representatives Ann Meyer, R-Fort Dodge, and Mike Sexton, R-Rockwell City.

About 20 members of the public attended the forum in the Bioscience and Health Sciences Building at Iowa Central Community College.

Eggs and Issues is sponsored by the college and the Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance.

Sports betting

A measure currently before the state House of Representatives is intended to regulate sports betting that Sexton said is already going on illegally.

The bill would allow Iowa casinos to run sports betting operations if they apply for and receive a special license.

Those licenses would cost about $15,000. Revenue generated by the sale of those licenses would be used to hire three new employees for the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission who would monitor sports betting.

Bets would be placed by using handheld devices and smart phones.

The House State Government Committee passed the bill on Feb. 28. The House Ways and Means Committee approved it last week. It now faces action by the full House.

“I’m not exactly sure what the future of sports betting is going to be,” Sexton said.

He said that any proposal to divide the revenue the state gets from sports betting between all 99 counties on a per capita basis would kill the bill.

Sports betting wouldn’t be a huge revenue source, anyway, according to Kraayenbrink.

“We know there’s no money in it,” Sexton added.

Meyer said the bill does include more money for treating gambling addiction.

Solar energy

A solar energy bill that’s become controversial is only intended to make sure that individuals who use solar panels and sell electricity to utilities pay their fair share to maintain the electrical grid, according to Meyer.

“This bill does not discourage solar energy,” she said. “It does not discourage new solar energy being developed. What it does is it just makes an equitable system for everyone using the grid.”

“This is just one way to make the maintenance of the grid more equitable,” she added.

Solar panel owners who now have contracts with utilities will not be affected by the bill, according to Meyer.

Kraayenbrink said requiring those solar panel owners to help pay for the electrical grid is no different than requiring the owners of electric cars to help pay for the roads.

Budget

Kraayenbrink said developing the state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 will be a main emphasis of the remaining four to five weeks of the legislative session.

Although the state Senate and House are both controlled by Republicans, their proposed budgets are about $40 million apart, he said.

“We’re just going to have to negotiate down to what we feel is a fair amount of your tax dollars that we can spend and still keep Iowa in a good, strong fiscal state,” he said.