A mug shot of David Williams should be posted at every race track and on every barn in Kentucky because the egomaniacal Republican Senate President is Enemy No. 1 to the commonwealth’s signature industry. He has repeatedly opposed any and all attempts to expand legal gaming, even though it’s abundantly clear that the horse industry needs revenue from slots and other new gambling to hold its own with rival states.

These rival states – I’m talking about Indiana, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Louisiana – have used revenue from expanding gaming to boost purses. Since owning and training horses is a losing proposition for most, horsemen must go where they have the best chance to at least break-even. They may want to stay in Kentucky, but they simply can’t afford it.

So that’s why Churchill Downs has been forced to reduce its racing programs. It’s why Ellis Park is on life support and Turfway Park is in intensive care. It’s literally a do-or-die situation. If the legislature doesn’t support Democratic House Majority Leader Greg Stumbo’s bill to legalize video betting terminals at tracks, we can kiss our horse industry good-bye.

The commonwealth desperately needs new revenue, and not just to save the horse racing industry. We need it to maintain the basic services to which our citizens have a right. Already Governor Steve Beshear has been forced to kill many important programs and seriously reduce others. Our people are suffering, and yet here’s what Williams said last week at a Republican banquet according to Joe Gerth’s column in the Courier-Journal:

“For those bloggers who are here who want to see a battle over taxation and spending, you’re about to see Armageddon,” Williams said, generating one of the biggest rounds of applause of the night. “We’ve given this governor as much money as he’s going to get. He’s going to have to manage his money and be responsible just like every household in the commonwealth has to do.”

What a pompous ass. This is a classic example of putting ego and politics ahead of what’s best for the people. Williams has no new ideas whatsoever about how to generate new revenue. All he wants to do is cut and slash and blame the governor – who, by the way, inherited the mess from Williams’ Republican buddy, the discredited and inept Ernie Fletcher.

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It’s appalling that one of our highest-ranking elected officials could have so little compassion for those citizens who have been hurt by cuts in education, social services programs, the public-defender program, and many others.

And here we should pause a moment to recognize the Kentucky Council of Churches, the Council of Catholic Bishops, the Family Foundation, and all the other groups who lobbied successfully to prevent an expanded-gaming proposal from being put to a statewide referendum, even though 80 per cent of our citizens said plainly that they wanted the right to vote on it.

Talk about a pyrrhic victory. Yes, they succeeded in forcing our timid and myopic legislators from even bringing the referendum question to a vote on the House floor. They used all sorts of silly and irresponsible scare tactics, implying that expanding game would spawn legions of new problem gamblers and probably cause Tony Soprano to move into your neighborhood, besides.

But, amazingly, the legislators bought it – at least partly because the horse and tourism industries didn’t do a good job of debunking the myths being perpetrated by the expanded game opponents.

For one thing, expanded gaming in Kentucky WILL NOT create very many new problem gamblers at all. They’re already here because expanded gaming is already here – it’s just right across the river in Indiana, West Virginia, and Illinois. It has been estimated that Kentuckians gamble an estimated $1 billion a year in the casino boats on the other side of the river.

So Kentucky gambling dollars are building roads and improving schools and funding social-services programs in our neighboring states. We need to keep those dollars at home to help our economy and fund our programs. What is it about this that David Williams and his ilk don’t get?

If Kentucky doesn’t approve Stumbo’s bill, the only alternative is to raise taxes. It’s simple as that. There are no other plans for new revenue streams on the table. The legislature already has screwed our other signature industry, the distilled-spirits industry, by unfairly adding to its tax burden. So we need new revenue just to stay afloat, much less grow.

Any state in the union would love to have Kentucky’s horse industry. It creates jobs, generates taxes, attracts support businesses, preserves our land, and is environmentally friendly. It’s our No. 1 tourist attraction and the thing that sets us apart from any other state. Yet instead of protecting and nurturing our horse industry, Williams and his narrow-minded supporters treat it with a cavalier attitude of  mean-spirited neglect.

Armageddon, indeed.

While this is typical overblown Williams bluster, it’s nonetheless true that our horse industry is fighting for survival. It’s pretty easy to identify the forces of good. They’re all the people who love and nurture thoroughbreds and all other breeds of horses. It’s  just as easy to identify the forces of evil. They’re the followers of our misguided Senate president, a man whose arrogance has gotten so out of control that he has declared war on the horse industry and anybody else who supports growth and progress. It’s obvious that he’s interested only in making life as difficult as possible for the Governor so that he can further his own twisted political agenda.

Check out David Williams’ mug shot. Commit it to memory. If you see him, be wary. He’s armed with deadly unbridled arrogance and out to kill the commonwealth’s horse industry