Cook: Did Issue 3 End An Arkansas Tradition? (UPDATED)

Exactly one month from today, horse racing season officially opens at Oaklawn, the earliest it’s ever been. Attending horse races at Oaklawn is an Arkansas tradition.

Along with the fun ritual of a day at the races is another practice whereby elected officials distribute Oaklawn season passes to constituients.

It’s a quirky Arkansas tradition. Oaklawn, an entity created to allow legal gambling, provides state legislators and constitutional officers season passes to distribute to Arkansans, typically friends, donors, etc., of the elected officials.

Even quirkier is how a great number of folks covet these season passes and hound elected officials to get the free passes. One state legislator called season passes, “the bane of my existence” due to the numbers of calls and emails they receive asking for them.

Keep in mind that a one day Oaklawn entrance fee is just $2, so having a season pass is simply a status symbol.

However, this quirky Arkansas tradition might come to end since the passage of Issue 3, which in part, amended the Arkansas state constitution to prohibit gifts from a “lobbyist, a person acting on behalf of a lobbyist or a person employing or contracting a lobbyist.”

A “gift” is defined as “any payment, entertainment, advance, services, or anything of value, unless consideration of equal or greater value has been given therefor.”

While I’m not an attorney – but I have seen many episodes of “Law and Order” – it seems to me that season passes are something of value from an entity, Oaklawn, that employs or contracts with lobbyists. Issue 3 just might have inadvertently stopped the tradition of elected officials accepting and then distributing racing passes.

I’ve visited with various legislators and the Arkansas Ethics Commission about how Issue 3 might impact season passes and as of right now nobody is 100% sure if elected officials can receive season passes. But most are inclined to believe that Issue 3 prevents state legislators from receiving racing passes.

Currently, there’s a shell bill for the 2015 General Assembly, HB 1002, sponsored by Representative Warwick Sabin and Senator Jon Woods, that would authorize the Arkansas Ethics Commission to be the arbiter of various issues created by the passage of Issue 3.

However, as it pertains to racing passes, it might take some time to get complete clarification.

First, the shell bill must be filled in, debated and then passed by the General Assembly. Then, it will take some time for the Ethics Commission to issue advisory opinions on various issues. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that the 2015 racing season might be over before the racing passes issue is fully resolved.

I visited with an Oaklawn spokesperson today and he declined to be interviewed due to a busy schedule, however, I’m told that on Wednesday Oaklawn will issue a press release stating what they plan to do about the distribution of season passes.

Previous Arkansas General Assemblies have already grappled with the racing passes issue. Arkansas Code 23-111-105 (b) (2) addresses racing passes, reading in part:

“The passes provided to the members of the General Assembly and constitutional officers are not for their personal use but are for redistribution as provided in this section and, therefore, do not constitute gifts or compensation to members of the General Assembly and constitutional officers for the purposes of any law of this state.”

Basically a previous General Assembly said racing passes weren’t gifts and state legislators couldn’t use them for personal use, but a key question to be resolved is while the statue says the passes can’t be used for personal use, it’s still something of value received from an entity that contracts with lobbyists.

But. as so often in politics, where there’s a will there’s a way. There just might be a legal way to allow elected officials to accept and distribute racing passes, but it’s not yet clear how this could come about. Oaklawn’s upcoming press release might provide a bit of clarification on the issue.

Personally, it seems to me that Issue 3 prohibits the acceptance of season racing passes since it’s a gift of value from a entity that contracts with lobbyists, even if the statue says it’s not a gift since the constitution trumps the statue.

However, even if there was a way for elected officials to accept season racing passes, shouldn’t we just end this tradition altogether?

One state legislator told me, off the record, they felt like once a year they were working for Oaklawn since they had to fiddle around with racing passes either by fielding numerous requests for them or mailing them out.

Oaklawn is an Arkansas institution and I enjoy visiting it every year for horse races and Reuben sandwiches.

Hopefully, Issue 3 ended the somewhat silly tradition of elected officials distributing racing passes. We’ll know soon enough.

UPDATE: On Wednesday (Dec. 10), Oaklawn Jockey Club issued a press release announcing they plan to waive the $2 general admission fee for this racing season. Thus, there is no need to provide season racing passes to elected officials since it’s free for everyone. Although, I’d bet a beer at Oaklawn that some legislators will still get requests for season passes from people who didn’t hear about the 2015 free admission policy.

From Oaklawn’s press release:

Charles J. Cella, President of Oaklawn Jockey Club, said Oaklawn wanted to celebrate the completion of an expansion project that began 18 months ago, and at the same time wanted to express its appreciation to racing fans for their support of thoroughbred racing at Oaklawn over the past 110 years.