Duncan Doesn’t Want You to Vote

Over the last two days on Lubbock's First News, we have been talking about expanding gambling in Texas and the possibility of having casinos open up here. We have been focusing on an article from the Houston Chronicle from Monday discussing the chances of a vote happening. The chances aren't looking good for Texans.

According to the Chronicle, 86% of Texans believe that the public should be able to vote on whether to legalize casinos. That is a huge majority of people. 86% of Texans believe we should be able to vote on this one issue. That doesn't mean that all 86% would support casinos in Texans though. According to the Star-Telegram, 67% would support casinos in the state (63% of people in West Texas support casinos). That's still a good majority and I do think it would pass if put up for a vote, but being "for" or "against" isn't what I want to talk about here. I want to talk about the 86% figure and why that 86% is being ignored.

State Senator Robert Duncan from right here in Lubbock doesn't want you to be able to vote on the issue. According to the Chronicle, Duncan has no plans of advancing the bill that would let Texans vote. In the article Duncan says the following:

"There is no support in my committee"... "I just don't think there are the votes in the Senate. I don't see any chance of passage."

and

"A lot of us have strong opposition to using gaming to solve our budget problems," Duncan said. "We've got a lot of other pressing issues to deal with. It is not my intent to bring it up for a hearing."

As I said on the show, I understand not wanting to use gaming as a way to solve or fund different areas in the budget. Instead of having money from casinos dedicated to education or some other area, just have the money flow into a general fund. That way you direct the money where it's needed and you won't have to hope that you make enough money to fund something.

Having said that, I think Duncan is way off base with this. How arrogant do you have to be to deny Texans a vote? It's obvious that Sen. Robert Duncan believes that government (himself) knows better than you do. Even though he was elected to represent us, it's clear that he has no interest in doing that.

Who is Duncan looking out for? Why doesn't Duncan want the people of Texas to vote?

Duncan says that there are more important issues to discuss. He must mean the texting while driving ban (big government). Or maybe the Pay Day loan ban (big government). He could be talking about the state-wide smoking ban (again big government). Maybe he is talking about having a state-wide property tax for schools. Or he might just be talking about groundwater rights and that little "public interest" part.

So all that big government stuff is more important than letting people vote. Interesting. I forgot, someone tell me which party he is in. It's hard to tell really.

Texans should be able to head to the polls and determine our future. Whether we vote for casinos or not, we shouldn't leave it up to politicians who are looking out for themselves rather than looking out for us. Senator Duncan is wrong on this issue and the people here in Lubbock are starting to get fed up.

If Duncan isn't careful, the next time he is up for re-election, he again might not want people to vote.