Topeka — Two days of negotiations, maneuvers, votes and words about wounded pride left a bill extending the Kansas Lottery right where it had been approved by the Senate, awaiting passage in the House.
The Senate OK'd a compromise measure Thursday night, 33-7. The House plans to vote Monday; approval would send it to Gov. Bill Graves.
The bill would keep the lottery in operation until July 1, 2008, six years past the July 1, 2002, expiration set in current law. It does not contain a House-backed proposal to use $4 million in lottery revenues to subsidize Kansas air fares.
It is the same proposal with a few minor technical corrections that the Senate had passed Tuesday evening.
But the House rejected that compromise Wednesday. Some members said they were upset with what they perceived as a lack of respect from senators, who never debated the airfare proposal.
Frustrated House-Senate negotiators then drafted the same proposal and sent it back to both chambers.
Rep. Carlos Mayans, R-Wichita, who led House opposition to the bill Wednesday, tried but failed to expedite its passage Thursday.
After the Senate's vote a few hours later, Mayans and other legislators said they expect the House to pass the bill Monday.
"I believe it's over," said Sen. Nancey Harrington, R-Goddard, her chamber's lead negotiator in producing a version acceptable to both the House and Senate.
During the House session Thursday, Mayans asked his colleagues to reconsider Wednesday's rejection of the bill and send it to Graves.
"I was just trying to shorten the process," Mayans said later. "It's time to move on."
But Mayans was forced to withdraw his motion when colleagues questioned whether the House had possession of the bill. The Senate already had accepted the House's rejection, leaders had reappointed conference committee members, and the negotiators had reached agreement once again in effect creating a new bill.
Besides extending the lottery, the bill would ban unsolicited lottery advertising by phone or e-mail and prevent the lottery from operating interactive video terminals for games such as video poker.
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