On February 8, Atlantic County and the state of New Jersey each pleaded their tax payment case before Superior Court Judge Joseph Marczyk. The judge will render a written decision whether to stop the amended casino payment-in-lieu-of-taxes law until the county’s challenge is done in the courts.
The county filed suit to stop the amended law which cuts back on much needed revenue for the county by eliminating sports betting and internet gaming from the gross gaming calculations, according to the Press of Atlantic City.
The county charges the changes violate a 2018 consent order settlement of the county’s lawsuit against the original 2016 so-called PILOT law. The law as changed will result in the county receiving $15 million to $26 million less through 2026.
John Lloyd, the lawyer for the state, argued the state legislature had the right to define “gross gaming revenue” in any way it saw fit, at any time, regardless of the consent agreement. He also said the original PILOT legislation and the consent order did not specify what constitutes gross gaming revenue, just that the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement would decide.
County attorney Ron Riccio said the understanding was that calculations would include all revenues.
Moreover, Riccio and Marczyk both said the DGE included all sources of revenue in its calculations of “gross gaming revenue.”
In other Atlantic City news, it seems that each week another legislator climbs aboard the ban smoking express. This time around it’s the still powerful state Senator Richard Codey. The former Governor and former Senate president signed the Smoke-Free Air Act as Governor in 2006. The law banned smoking indoors in public places with the casinos exempt, according to NJ Online Gambling.
“Restaurants complained their businesses would suffer, but in fact, the opposite happened,” Codey said. Customers loved the smoke-free environment. The same will happen with the casinos. It’s past time that casino workers have the same protections as every other worker in New Jersey. We need to get this done.”
Codey is the eighth state senator to co-sponsor S264, a bill which simply deletes the portion of the old law that includes an exemption for casinos.
In a statement that’s part of the new bill, supporters say, “The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health found that casino workers are at greater risk for lung and heart disease because of secondhand smoke, and a study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that the air in casinos can have up to 50 times more cancer-causing particles than the air on rush-hour highways.”
Cynthia Hallett, president and CEO of the Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights advocacy group, said that Codey “has heard every single, tired scare tactic the industry can come up with and he knows they aren’t true.”
