Official: Poker not ‘fix-all’

ST. MARTINVILLE — It’s true that St. Martin Parish uses some of its video poker revenue to fix its roads. But that parish was forced to go to voters for a road sales tax to make up the difference.

St. Martin Parish President Guy Cormier said last week that video poker “is not the fix-all, cure-all” for repairing parish roads.

“Video poker — though we’ve been having it for a while — could not fund a major road project,” Cormier said.

Iberia Parish is considering bringing back the controversial issue to voters, who rejected the gaming in 1996 by 615 votes, 11,713 to 11,098. St. Martin, however, voted to keep its video-poker gaming, as did St. Mary Parish.

St. Martin uses anything in excess of $290,000 for road repair and maintenance. The first $290,000 is for St. Martin Economic Development Authority funding, other agencies’ funding and roadside spraying.

“The rest goes into ‘excess video poker,’ which is dedicated to road maintenance,” Cormier said.

Video poker brings in about $3 million per year for the parish.

“But we had to go to voters for a 1-cent sales tax dedicated wholly to roads. We made sure it said in the tax call that the money would go where the rubber meets the road and it would not be for salaries, benefits or health insurance.”

Last week, the Iberia Parish Council Public Works Committee voted to ask the full council to conduct public meetings so members could decide whether voters would be ready to cast ballots for video poker.

Iberia Parish Councilman Jerome Fitch, who offered the item, said he realizes the parish will have opposition to video poker, which one lawyer — Will Grubbs — called “the most addicting form of gambling.”

Church groups will probably voice their opposition, too, Fitch said, as well as casino gambling interests who don’t want to see other competition. The state requires video-poker gaming to be approved by the Louisiana Legislature before it can go before voters because it is state regulated and is separate from charitable gaming. The session starts April 30.