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Little clarity on slots-cash proposals
Staff writer
The state Department of Community and Economic Development had little comment Wednesday on a Washington County commissioner's proposal that the local share of slot-machine gaming revenue be used to reduce county property taxes by nearly half.
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Commission Chairman Larry Maggi's trial balloon, hoisted Tuesday at a meeting with state lawmakers who also had their own ideas on revamping the use of the local share, hasn't been run past DCED, which makes the final decision on how the money, in the form of grants, will be used.
The pot totaled just over $8 million this year and funded 25 projects. A full year of gaming operations at The Meadows Racetrack & Casino is expected to bring in $12 million next year.
Asked if a letter from the Washington County commissioners on the topic could trigger a thorough review, Ortiz said, "I'm not going to deal in hypotheticals at this time."
If DCED determines that the local share of slots revenue from The Meadows could not be used to reduce Washington County taxes, a countywide referendum in support of the county tax issue, suggested by Commissioner Diana L. Irey, would not supersede state law, Ortiz said.
The DCED spokesman was not aware of any other county receiving slots money from a casino that had proposed using the local share to reduce county property taxes.
Maggi and Irey embraced the idea of reducing county taxpayers' burden, while Commission Vice Chairman Bracken Burns on Tuesday dismissed both his fellow board members' and legislators' proposals as "political pandering." He stressed his support for economic development projects and job creation as spelled out in the slots law, passed in 2004.
A presentation spearheaded by state Rep. Jesse White, D-Cecil, outlined the legislators' proposal that would designate one-third of the local share for economic development projects, one-third for water and sewer projects and one-third for "hometown projects" in 66 of Washington County's 67 municipalities. The host community for the casino, North Strabane Township, is not included.
Ortiz also took issue with an assertion that DCED had given the legislators' proposal its blessing.
"That is not accurate," Ortiz said Wednesday. "It was meant to be the beginning of dialogue between both parties."
White said he discussed the legislative proposal with DCED and considered use of the word "blessing" a matter of semantics.
Meanwhile, William McGowen, executive director of the Washington County Redevelopment Authority, said the application process for the next round of slots revenue will proceed.
"The new process is going to go out shortly," McGowen said Wednesday. "They can apply, and that process is essentially the same as last year, with a few things added from DCED as far as checklist information."
News of competing proposals might cause confusion among potential applicants. Asked how the redevelopment authority, as the agency handling local share applications, might address inquiries, McGowen responded, "I don't know. We're waiting for direction."
slots money : 8/14/2008
So the ultimate political panderer has the unmitigated gall to apply that term to his colleagues. So he's in favor of economic development projects? I guess that would include the failed Alta Vista industrial park off Interstate 70. Millions of dollars of taxpayer money were invested in the infrastructure for this white elephant. So what happened why the hijacked slots money was allocated by the bureaucrats? They did what good politicians and bureaucrats always do. They threw over a million dollars of what should have been tax relief money into Alta Vista. Surprise, surprise.
