Amendment 50 Gambling and Colorado Community Colleges

On July 2^nd, the towns of Blackhawk, Central City and Cripple Creek, and the casinos that they are home to, opened their doors to expanded gambling. It was a move that had been several years in the making. Last November, the voters of Colorado approved Amendment 50, followed swiftly by votes in the three towns, which allowed the casinos to remain open twenty-four hours a day, increase betting limits twenty-fold, and include craps and roulette in their offerings.

All of this was done with the blessings of the thirteen community colleges that serve the state of Colorado. Besides the casinos, with Blackhawk being the most able to profit from this change in the law, the community colleges are expected to get the lion's share of the additional tax revenue that is generated. And the community colleges need the money more than ever.

Enrollment in the community colleges is up 32 percent. Yet due to the poor economy, and the resulting fall in tax revenue, the community colleges have been forced to make budget cuts, including laying off adjunct professors and delaying construction projects. Tuition has also been increased. Currently, Colorado is 49^th in funding for higher education, forcing students to bear a larger share of higher education costs, often though expensive private student loans. Much of this lack of funding is the result of making higher education a low priority in state law.

The Colorado Constitution is broken with legislation that allots smaller amounts to higher education as other projects and departments get priority for funding from an ever shrinking budget. So far the problem has been addressed with bandages, including Amendment 50. To completely fix the problems, the State's Constitution would have to be completely rewritten, removing conflicting clauses, and taxes would have to be increased; both are unlikely to happen anytime in the near future.

Senator Al White, when serving as a State Representative tried to get the State Constitution rewritten in 2003. His proposal did not get a single vote of support from either the House of Representatives or the Senate. As for the possibility of a voter approved tax increase, in a telephone interview with Rocky Mountain Collegian, White said that he found the idea "dubious" in today's political environment.

White fears that without a tax increase, Colorado will be out of money to support higher education within a decade. As for Amendment 50, he noted that "It's left the rest of higher education out of the mix and still in the yogurt." Leaving out the rest of higher education is not the only problem with Amendment 50. The new law was not worded properly to work with the older amendment that legalized limited-stakes gambling in 1991, whose proceeds went to different concerns than Amendment 50's.

An even more serious issue is the very source of the funding that Amendment 50 provides. The fiscal year that ended on June 30^th was the second year in a row that gambling tax revenue declined, and the worst year on record for Colorado casinos. According to the state, revenue was down almost four million in 2008 and another thirteen million in 2009.

While the community colleges are hoping that Amendment 50 will help fix their budget problem, and that our state leaders will play fair and not cut more of their funding because they are now receiving funds from the casinos, the gambling industry itself is hoping that Amendment 50 will reverse their own revenue decline. The bad economy, the smoking ban, and high gas prices have all hurt the casinos.

In other states, where similar changes in gambling law have occurred, the boost in gambling revenues has only been temporary. To compete more with Las Vegas, a change in liquor laws is also needed by Colorado casinos. Considering the possibility that Amendment 50 will only provide a temporary boost in gambling revenue, current estimates of how much the community colleges will receive may be wrong.

According to current projections, the estimate for the first year tax revenue for the community colleges is projected to be 22 million dollars, 26 million in the second year, 38 million in the third, 45 million in the fourth, and 57 million in the fifth: a total of 188 million dollars in the first five years. These funds are to be allotted by percentage of enrollment in each of the colleges. The funds will be allotted next July.