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Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Indiana Decisions - Update on Flawed Bingo Rules
The Indiana Law Blog last reported on August 11th that a trial court had thrown out new state bingo rules that required bingo halls to give more money to charity. The reason was that one of the steps in the rulemaking process hadn't been followed. The Aug. 11th entry includes a copy of Judge Dreyer's 7-page order.
Today the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reports:
The Indiana Attorney General’s Office has filed a notice of intent to appeal a Marion Superior Court ruling that stalled rules governing how much money bingo parlors should give to charity. The notice, filed on behalf of the Indiana Department of Revenue, does not mean an appeal is certain. Larry McKee, deputy commissioner of the revenue department, said Tuesday the notice is designed to keep the state’s options open. Those options, he said, could include an appeal, going through the entire rules adoption process anew or satisfying the technicality that quashed the rules. * * *Both sides seem unwilling to budge. John Gahan, manager of American Legion Post 330 in New Haven and secretary-treasurer of a statewide advocacy group called the Indiana Charitable Alliance, said he believes resurrecting the rules would be “ridiculous.”
“It’s always been one-sided with Mr. McKee,” Gahan said. “I don’t really understand it myself. I think he took it personal.” Countered McKee: “I have not taken anything personal. What’s there to take personal?”
Gahan and Indianapolis attorney Marilyn Moores, who represents the charity gaming groups, said they believe McKee hasn’t actually appealed yet because he wants to skirt controversy in the heat of down-to-the-wire election campaigning. “I’m not sure that I would want to be perceived as thwarting what is, for a lot of folks, their pastime and their social life” in a politically charged year, Moores said. McKee said the political climate had nothing to do with filing just an intent to appeal.
Gahan and Moores also said the revenue department has legislative sanction to regulate only net proceeds, not gross receipts. McKee disagrees. Gahan and Moores have hinted that the matter should be decided by the legislature, although a state legislative study panel considered the issue late last month and took no action. “The way things move,” McKee said, “I’m sure they’ll have their chance next year to (have legislators consider it.)”
Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 15, 2004 07:54 AM
Posted to Indiana Decisions