 Hello everybody. I'm Marsha Martin and I am here today with still representative Jonathan Singer and he and I are going to get inside the ballot box about the constitutional amendment about charitable gambling and because this is the time when all the names and numbers change I am going to ask Jonathan first to tell us the official nomenclature right here and then tell us a little bit about what the constitutional amendment does and why it's important. Absolutely. So I've got a great mnemonic device for all of you and first of all, Marsha, thank you for having me on because this is going to be a very busy ballot this year. We're going to see a lot of different issues that are going to come up but this is amendment C. Just think about C for charity because that's what this is about. Bingo proceeds can't be done on a for-profit basis which means that it goes to your after-school programs, your veteran service organizations, swim clubs and high school marching bands and so just remember amendment C for charity and you'll be on Easy Street. That is wonderful and then what are the details about this because it's not just bingo, we got raffles, we've got all that stuff and then there is language about how people who work on the event can be paid or not paid. Sure, no well this does two very simple things and so first thing that it does and actually I'm going to rewind real quickly and just tell you it is ridiculous that in the 21st century bingo games are regulated in the Colorado State Constitution. That's the reality that we live in. I can't tell you why because I don't know it was maybe a good idea a hundred years ago but now it is regulated in the Constitution which means any changes we make we have to go to you the voters. I always like to set things up that way so this does two things and you now know why it requires a constitutional change. The first thing is right now your bingo callers can't get paid it's unconstitutional and so we're allowing them to receive reimbursement for up to the value of minimum wage so if you're driving two three four hours sometimes in rural areas to get to a bingo hall to raise money for your four-age club you can get reimbursed for gas you can be given a hamburger or you know if you need a small cash stipend it is now constitutional to do that that bingo game is not going to get shut down. The second thing that this is going to do is it deals with it deals with timing so right now if I start a non-profit tomorrow to help out with the COVID crisis I can't get a bingo or a raffle license for at least five years. Wow it's once again it's in the Constitution it boggles my mind and so what we did is we said you know what instead of five years let's do three years and then let's just take that out of the Constitution going on from from here on out. So in three years assuming everything goes well if people want to get a bingo or raffle license the legislature can lower that from three years to two years to one year or raise it from three years back to five if for some reason that's the magic number. So really once again two simple things let let your bingo callers get reimbursed for the things that the things that they're doing to help raise money for charity and two let's let volunteer service organizations be able to get a license a little bit sooner. Okay not rocket science it's low-hanging fruit it's bipartisan it got one no vote in the state house I obviously I wasn't the one no and we had urban rural and suburban people supporting this for all the right reason. Sure because every church likes to do that all summer long right or they did. So why is why is the reimbursement limited to minimum wage? Well this is this is this is where we get in the weeds and I find this fascinating. So the only opponents of this and and they're actually no longer opponents of this were the for-profit gaming institutions better known as casinos and they really see bingo and raffles as competition and and their argument was well you could be paying people six or seven figures a year to be going to run these bingo um bingo games which you know is a little ridiculous and so the you know the the bingo hall folks said you know what we just want to be able to give people a shift meal we want to be able to reimburse gas or help them out with their day-to-day duties because you know what um it's a real skill it's a real skill you know people who are good bingo callers people will come back for that it's it's more entertaining it's more fun and so um what we did is we said okay you know what the the bingo folks are saying they're not going to be paying people out the nose and the opponent said well then just put that in the constitutional amendment and we'll drop our opposition and so we did so so that is that's sort of the I won't say the short version but that's the medium version of the conversation is um we didn't want to make this into a fight we wanted to make this into something about common sense and consensus right that is a good story though I'm glad I asked um you wonder what I do at the Capitol all day it's that kind of stuff so well I I mean I know that you have that kind of stuff I mean your whole history at the Capitol has been finding gaps and patching them pretty much you know I mean that's not a very dignified way of saying it but that's the way it's worked so um the other thing I'd like you to explain more is this expiration date I mean that seems to be kind of a new idea that there's something in the Constitution and it's going to expire and fall out of the Constitution so so yeah I mean when I said two parts technically you know part two has an A and a B and so the the part that expires is this this heavier limit that's going down to with a three-year or not limit but entry point for nonprofits we're just ripping that out of the Constitution in the next three years and and long story short the reason that we're ripping that out of the Constitution over the next three years is because once again for-profit casinos said look you're going to get some fly-by-night organization they're going to set up a bingo front and really they're going to do it for nefarious purposes that doesn't to be honest with you pass my smell test I don't see a lot of bingo fronts out there but what we said is okay we'll meet you halfway instead of just saying we're not going to have a time limit on there we'll we'll compromise the Constitution says five we want zero let's just land in the middle and hit three and after three years let's let's just make it up to the lawmakers casinos if you think we're doing a bad job go in there and write a bill you don't have to appeal to 55 percent of the electorate and vice versa bingo uh bingo charities if you think that three years is way too long to wait because we're the middle of a crisis and we've got nonprofits that would like to raise money without raising taxes then maybe it could be two years or one year or zero right and of course that's not tremendously helpful for the ones who are trying to do that right now I happen to be talking to several people who are trying to start nonprofits and they've got three three years to wait fortunately there are other kinds of fundraising they can do but bingo is clearly the most fun um letters and numbers it is clearly the most fun yeah right um so uh has this ever been done before the idea that something gets moved from constitutional to statutory that's an excellent question um I should have asked you in advance no no no that's okay I I appreciate you you're getting the real honest answer here um I don't know I I don't know that for sure we certainly repealed things yes and I assume if you repeal something in the constitution someone could by law put it back in or modify it in some way and put it back in um and so that's kind of what this is is it's a repeal um and so you know we've repealed things like slavery amendment right we've repealed um and so um you know I've seen repeals I don't know I mean this is sort of a modification and a repeal this this is like the fun stuff that you know adds as wrinkles to your brain so okay so it'll be repealed is the creation of the of a three-year statute automatic or does that have to be taken up all new by a subsequent legislature so um the way that I read it and and obviously constitutional lawyers may feel differently and I don't know how many constitutional bingo lawyers we have but we'll find out um is there may need to be some enacting statute next year someone may have to write an enacting law to get this all the way through the process but um typically things are presumed to be constitutional until they're challenged in court and so my guess is is you may see a bill next year that sort of codifies and implements this um but really the idea here is to make to cut the red tape make this simple and and let things just sort of pass the smell test all right that sounds good um what brought this to your attention is you were the sponsor of this bill correct yeah this is this is kind of a fun nerdy heart heartwarming story but um so eight years ago when I was first in the house I was approached by someone from the moose club and please don't elks folks please don't get mad at me right now uh but he came to me and he goes Jonathan um I've been doing a progressive raffle uh which is has nothing to do with politics the the pot progressively gets bigger yeah until somebody wins so um so anyway he said you know I called the secretary of state they regulate this he told me it was okay but he just called me up the other day Jonathan and he said you know what I'm sorry guys this is actually technically illegal um today will be your last day to do this just fyi you're not in trouble because it was my bad call but we have to stop doing progressive raffles um so anyway he called me up and I and I told this guy you know look we're already halfway into the legislative session it's my year I don't really I don't feel qualified yet to run a bill on this issue but I'll make you a deal if I win my election in November um I will this will be the first bill that I run next year and so this guy's retired he doesn't know anything about the law we bring him down to the Capitol he works with our nonpartisan billwriters we write this bill and uh the very first thing I remember is uh we brought him down to the Capitol and had him testify on this and he really didn't agree with me on most of my politics he would actually kind of challenge me you know I was working on an electric vehicle tax credits like you know those electric vehicles they're they're just going to add wear and tear to the roads and we're not getting gas tax money from them I don't know why you're doing this um in the second but so but we found a way to work together and the second thing that I got from this was when I want to say it was the United Veterans Committee came to me and they said hey representative singer we love your bill and I'm going what bill are you talking about and they said raffles are the VFWs the American legions these groups raise money and it's hard but bingo's raffles they do this and so without raising any taxes we're going to be able to do this we passed that bill almost unanimously my first full year at the state capitol and then I was the only one left with institutional knowledge because of term limits on bingo and raffle issues and so I became the go-to person on all issues related to bingo and raffle it's my claim to fame okay well I think you probably have some different ones too but um but yeah no you were talking about a different raffle bill before because that was your first year because I was confused at this point yeah that was my first year it was it was a progressive raffle and and it turns out like I said progressive raffles were illegal um and so we just clarified in state law that if you want to do a raffle where the pot of money gets progressively bigger there's no winner necessarily the first day you can do that um fortunately that part was not in the constitution that was a statutory change we were lucky there there you go just a clarification of what was in the constitution um but now you know whether you're moose elk or rotary or your church group or your temple or mosque um you know you you've got another option to be able to raise some money for your for your charities um and once again that's the thing about bingo and raffle is the winnings either there's a winner but also on top of you know whoever walks away you know gets a little extra money for for their gambling but on the flip side the the remainder of those dollars really go to really good organizations that are trying to help people sure sure they had to qualify as a charity for five years so yeah okay well I can't think of any more questions about this particular subject um that pretty much covers the story and we are right at five uh 20 minutes excuse me um so again it's see for charity and jonathan singer endorses the bit the constitutional amendment correct on your ballot and it's going to be way at the bottom of your ballot so while you're looking down the ballot to find it vote on all of the things in between that's a good idea um and anything else you want to say before I thank you and excuse you you know we're going to see a lot of controversial issues on the ballot it starts with the presidential race but we'll be debating abortion tax cuts tax increases the national popular vote um but if there's one thing that's going to bring people together this year it's going to be this bipartisan push that I ran with a rural republican to make sure that charities have the ability to raise money for their own organizations without raising taxes this year so vote yes on amendment c for charity and don't hesitate to reach out to me and hopefully in the comments section um marcia you can put in the website and people can go click on the link and um go interact with this a little bit and hopefully we'll do some good things for a good cause absolutely thank you for being willing to do this representative senior um good luck with your next career and um I always enjoy talking to you so give me a call if there's anything you would like to be interviewed about um I I appreciate that and you know I'm sure there's a lot to do it a lot to talk about my I look forward and you know through the end of the year of continuing to represent Longmont Lions and Allens Park but I also look forward to be becoming a resident and a constituent and a citizen again and um you know I'm going back to the most important job which is an engaged electorate there we go I'm not that you're not I mean you're still a citizen still a resident and still engaged correct that's true I just won't be my own boss so yeah okay thanks again representative singer um and uh I I really appreciate um everything that you've done for us all these years and appreciate you being here to get inside the ballot box with us