Once in awhile something gets forsaken into a state legislative hopper some-more engaging than a common bridge-naming and nonsense.
Take Rep. Paul Clymer’s check to residence a open grant predicament by charging casino-goers a $2 cover charge.
Yeah, we know, nobody going gambling wants to start with a certain loss. But a grant thing is genuine nauseous and removing uglier any year.
So a Bucks County Republican, prolonged a gambling opponent, wants any enthusiast entering any of a state’s 11 casinos to take one (well, indeed give two) for a team.
He says they can hack adult a span of singles or casino owners can put in turnstiles, count incomings and brazen a mix to a state.
(Not certain how that second choice competence work.)
The new income would be separate between a State Employees’ Retirement System and a Public School Employees’ Retirement System.
Both are a disaster interjection to a 2001 law sealed by then-Gov. Ridge augmenting many lawmakers’ pensions 50 percent and other open servants’ 25 percent.
Then came a retrogression and now taxpayers are stranded for $1 billion-plus this year and $4 billion by 2016, according to a state’s Independent Fiscal Office.
Oh, and a state Constitution prohibits curtailing grant advantages for stream or late employees.
So somebody somehow has to come adult with a boatload of money.
Nobody seems to know how most income Clymer’s check could collect, yet it’s positively tens of millions and during slightest a start; or partial of a start.
Clymer says conjunction a Revenue Department nor a Gaming Control Board is hazarding guesses on what a price would yield. And state gaming law does not need casinos to count patrons, yet (of course) many other states do.
“I indeed suspicion about this behind when other states started riverboat gambling and charged $5 for anyone to get on board,” Clymer says. “Our dual grant supports are in apocalyptic need and $2 a-head is positively reasonable.”
There is precedent. Indiana, with 13 casinos, has a $3 per chairman assign and Missouri, with 12 casinos, charges $2.
The attention positively hates a thought in Pennsylvania. We already taxation gambling during one of nation’s top rates, 55 percent, with income going to internal and state government, open schools, proffer firefighters, equine racing and more.
And no state produces some-more gambling taxation revenue. We took in $1.5 billion final year, a 10 percent boost from 2010, according to an attention survey.
Clymer’s check is in a House Gaming Oversight Committee, of that he’s a member. The committee’s chair, Rep. Tina Pickett, R-Bradford County, says, “I cruise it’s something we should cruise and demeanour at.”
There’s even hum that no-tax Gov. Corbett could get behind it since it’s a user fee. But Corbett press secretary Kevin Harley says in an email that “must be a rumor; we have not taken a position.”
Still, even yet a gaming attention expected has a poke to kill it, and even yet new or opposite ideas are frequency winners in a legislature, this is one that deserves a full airing.
It can’t finish grant woes, yet it can help.
States compulsory to count congregation offer some thought of how most it can help.
According to information collected by a American Gaming Association, Indiana’s casinos had 25 million visitors final year and New Jersey’s 11 casinos had 28 million.
I’d note that Jersey’s gaming income is dropping (down 7 percent) while Pennsylvania’s rising (up 21 percent), again according to attention data.
Simple math suggests Clymer’s check could collect adult a flattering pot and yield a square of a resolution to a grant problem.
Question is will lawmakers ante adult adequate votes to make it happen?
For new columns, go to philly.com/JohnBaer. Read his blog during philly.com/BaerGrowls.
