Lawmakers seek to reduce gaming commissioners’ pay

Topeka ? Some lawmakers, in their search for whatever money is available during the prolonged state budget crunch, are looking at the salaries of Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission members.

The five commissioners each earn $2,000 per month.

Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita, led a charge earlier in the legislative session in the House to reduce the commissioners’ pay to what lawmakers make — $78 per day when they are on state business, plus $85 per day for expenses.

“How many diapers can I buy for a person in a social service area, if we cut their pay down?” Landwehr asked.

Landwehr’s amendment was approved in the House but not taken up by the Senate.

According to legislative staffers, the Senate Ways and Means Committee has requested more information about the Racing and Gaming Commission’s salaries for when the Legislature returns April 30 for a wrap-up session.

That session will focus on finding at least $230 million to plug a hole in the $10.2 billion budget.

Racing and Gaming Commission Chairman Gene Olander of Topeka said it would be a bad idea to reduce commissioners’ pay.

The commissioners’ salaries were set higher than the standard state board or commission to attract applicants not related to the racing and gaming industry, he said.

Members of the Kansas Racing Commission receive $2,000 a month to serve. But they aren’t the best-paid state-appointed board members:¢ Kansas Corporation Commission members are paid $109,157 annually, with the chairman making $112,041. Their salaries are tied by state law to the salaries of appellate judges. The three commissioners work full time at the KCC, regulating the utility, telephone and trucking industries.¢ Kansas Board of Tax Appeals members are paid $97,366 annually and the chairman makes $99,830. Their salaries are tied by state law to the salaries of district court judges. The five board members work full time and handle about 11,000 tax appeals each year.

“They were afraid a small per diem would attract people in the industry who had axes to grind,” Olander said.

“It’s a rather contentious industry,” he said with various interest groups fighting against each other. “They’re all trying to get a piece of the pie.”

Landwehr said she could understand the higher salary when the commission was first started in the 1980s to get pari-mutuel racing off the ground.

But now with just two year-round pari-mutuel licenses to oversee — The Woodlands in Kansas City, Kan. and Wichita Greyhound Park — the commission sometimes meets for as little as an hour or two every month. The commissioners’ dealings with the four Indian tribal casinos, which operate with compacts with the state, is minimal.

Landwehr said it’s difficult to justify paying $2,000 per month to each racing commissioner when State Board of Education members each earn only $78 per day. Like racing commissioners, they also meet two days each month, and education board members make decisions that affect a multibillion-dollar public school system.

But Tracy Diel, acting executive director of the racing commission, said the commissioners’ workload often went beyond regular commission meetings.

“It’s a working commission,” Diel said.

¢Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission

Olander and Randall Rathbun, both attorneys, occasionally preside over appeal hearings on licensing issues. One commissioner, Keith Palmer, is a veterinarian and has been involved in the commission’s lab-testing program of animals.

Diel said the issue ultimately would be decided by the Legislature and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who has said she would be open to consider a bill to lower members’ salaries.