A proposal to bring gambling to the Northshore in southeast Louisiana was conspicuously missing from the St. Tammany Parish Council meeting agenda last Thursday, March 5, signaling an apparent victory for religious leaders.
COVINGTON – A proposal to bring gambling to the Northshore in southeast Louisiana was conspicuously missing from the St. Tammany Parish Council meeting agenda last Thursday, March 5, signaling an apparent victory for religious leaders.
On Friday, March 13, Parish President Kevin Davis in a prepared statement said he is abandoning a controversial proposal to create an entertainment district anchored by a casino barge south of Slidell. He said he began pursuing the project in hopes of generating $8 million to $11 million annually in local revenues from the district that could be used to lower citizens property taxes.
“I made it very clear that I could only support this project if it was tied into a reduction of property taxes,” Davis said in the statement. “I am told by our attorneys now there is not a responsible way for this to be done. As a result, I will not continue with the project in its present form.”
Davis made the proposal in spite of the fact that in 1996 the citizens of St. Tammany Parish had voted overwhelmingly-75-25- to ban all forms of gambling.
While Davis made it official Friday, the proposal had already begun to unravel when parish officials cancelled a “fact-finding” trip to Lake Charles to see that city’s floating casinos and to meet with local leaders, and secondly when the proposal wasn’t brought up before the council.
“We have every assurance that we have won this battle,” Waylon Bailey, pastor of First Baptist Church Covington and spokesman for Citizens for Quality of Life, said. “There will no gambling proposed for St. Tammany Parish.”
“[Parish President Kevin] Davis asked for a meeting with us. He told us that he was not going to go forward with the proposal,” Lonnie Wascom, Director of Missions for St. Tammany, said. “He ask if we would let him be the one to make it public, and told us he would be putting out a press release in a couple of weeks.”
According to Wascom, the reason the proposal died was because of “much prayer, a spirit of cooperation and peaceful activism.”
“To be honest, I believe his office just got overwhelmed. The council members got overwhelmed. And the legislative delegation said no,” Wascom said. “These 14 parish officials were deluged with phone calls, emails and letters speaking out against the proposal.
“They [the council] got tired of the calls and letters,” Bailey said. “They realized they needed to stop pushing it because they were fighting a losing battle. We made sure they knew in a kind, loving manner.”
“This issue died because Southern Baptists and other believers joined together and worked like Trojans to defeat it,” Wascom said.
They were not alone in their fight, though, as Jim Spillers, who was born in Covington but now lives in Monroe, met with the group to offer encouragement and to provide information on how gambling was defeated in Ouachita Parish.
“He told us, ‘You all are going to win this fight because you came together,’” Bailey said. “‘You are united in this fight, and that’s they key. Being united allowed us to win in Ouachita Parish and it is going to help you win here.’ It was a powerful statement, and, as it turns out, it proved to be a very prophetic statement.”
Both Bailey and Wascom agreed the unified front presented by the different religious leaders in St. Tammany against the gambling proposal was unprecedented but very effective.
“Our coming together for this common cause has truly been unprecedented, but a real blessing” Bailey said. “It has been a tremendous opportunity for leaders from other denominations to meet and pray together.
“I know a number of pastor plan on continuing to meet and we already plan on meeting again on the first Monday in May, hopefully to celebrate the fact that no gambling will be coming to St. Tammany Parish,” Bailey said. “We won.”