Enough is enough with the gambling
We rarely – make that never – quote Ozzy Osbourne in our editorials, but it seems appropriate to say that our “leaders” in Harrisburg are “going off the rails on a crazy train.”
With a state budget now three and a half months overdue, and a wide variety of agencies and schools in fiscal peril because the Legislature and governor are unable to model behavior much beyond that of a petulant third-grader, the powers that be in the state capital finally have come up with a solution: More gambling!
We kid you not. There are lawmakers from both parties, but mainly Republicans at this point, who think it’s wise to expand gambling even further in our state. They claim the as-yet-undetermined new gambling ventures could bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in license fees and taxes. We suspect it also would generate new streams of customers spending money that many of them can ill afford to lose, or perhaps more likely, parting the same group of gambling patrons from more of their cash.
Though the administration of Gov. Tom Wolf is still pressing for tax increases to plug the state’s massive budget gap, the governor apparently is not opposed to more gambling.
According to an Associated Press story earlier this week, top Democrats in the General Assembly aren’t climbing aboard the train just yet. The AP said Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa of Allegheny County is adamant that his caucus is not interested in “balancing the budget on the backs of gambling addicts and an unpredictable revenue stream.”
The AP points to 2013, when lawmakers approved gambling in bars and predicted that the state would reap $150 million a year as a result. The reality: Last fiscal year, that expected funding stream was a relative trickle, producing $554,000.
But that apparently hasn’t dissuaded those who think gambling is the gift that keeps on giving and giving and giving, despite what many would see as an oversaturation of casinos and other gaming options, especially in this region.
At this point, specifics are few, but state Sen. Kim Ward, a Republican from Westmoreland County, has introduced a bill that would permit the state’s casinos to offer Internet gambling to Pennsylvania residents who register as customers. The casinos would have to pay a $10 million fee for that opportunity.
Again, there’s a question as to how much of a boon such a move would be. The AP points out that in August, New Jersey casinos took in $12.2 million from Internet gambling, forwarding $183,000 in taxes to the state. That sort of income doesn’t sound like much of a dike-plugger for Pennsylvania’s multibillion-dollar budget shortfall and pension crisis, even if every casino in the state were to sign on.
Hard decisions need to be made, and compromises are in order, but the Democratic governor and the Republican power brokers in the Legislature have thus far proven unable or unwilling to tackle the challenges facing the state head-on, at least in a way that is acceptable to both sides.
A good start would be a bit of horse trading, with everything on the table. The governor wants to raise the state income tax. He’d also like to have Pennsylvania join every other major shale-drilling state in the nation by enacting an extraction tax. Republicans want to privatize the state liquor store system, something that is long overdue. Some combination of all of these is most likely necessary for the state to meet its current obligations and address some of its pressing needs.
“Job one” for our leaders is Harrisburg – in fact, the only statutory duty of the Legislature – is to pass an annual budget. They need to get busy and finally do the work for which they’re being paid. Wait, make that overpaid.