Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania used a joint hearing of Senate and House committees at the state Capitol last week to blast the plan of Democratic Governor Tom Wolf to raise the revenue tax that covers regulatory costs from 1.5 percent to 2 percent of gross gaming revenues.
“We are literally beating this industry like a piñata,” state Senator Camera Bartolotta complained at the hearing. Rep. John Payne, chairman of the House Gaming Oversight Committee, demanded to know the justification for the 33 percent hike. “If the state police is asking for more money, I want to know why,” Payne said, according to the Allentown Morning Call.
State Revenue Secretary Eileen McNulty, who approved the regulatory agencies’ initial request for the fee hike, threw the ball back to the legislature to vet agency budget requests. “We have no authority to oversee the use of the budgeted funds by other agencies,” she told the Morning Call.
The newspaper quoted State Police Lt. Colonel Stephen Bucar as saying his agency does not have enough troopers to cover the six eight-hour shifts per week at each casino, and costs go up when troopers are transferred from patrol, and from normal salary and benefit costs rising.
The 33 percent hike would raise annual regulatory costs for casinos to $74.7 million. Pro-casino lawmakers view it as another effort to bilk the industry, on the heels of Wolf’s proposal earlier this year to impose a tax on free-play issued by the casinos. Wolf included revenue from such a tax in his budget proposal this year.
