Legislative leaders say slots unlikely this year
HARRISBURG – Homeowners can forget about getting a property tax rebate this year. The state House of Representatives passed legislation last week that would legalize slot machines in Pennsylvania and use the revenue to fund property tax cuts. But the bill is so different from slots legislation that passed earlier in the Senate that legislative leaders say slots might not happen this year.
“We have some major problems with the House bill,” said Sen. Tommy Tomlinson, a Bucks County Republican who was the chief architect behind the Senate’s bill. “I might need to start over.”
House leaders suspect senators might just be posturing.
“We are puzzled at the pronouncements coming from the Senate that this bill is dead,” said Bill Patton, spokesman for Rep. Mike Veon, the second-ranking Democrat in the House. “This is just legislative maneuvering going on and really no different than any other piece of legislation. This takes place all the time.”
But even if the issue were resolved tomorrow, both sides agree that the state wouldn’t begin to see money from the venture until next year, so that means property tax cuts will be delayed for at least another year.
The two sides hope to meet next week, but reaching an agreement may take a while.
House leaders say they’re willing to compromise, but they complain that Senate members won’t negotiate with them. Before the House even voted on its legislation, Senate Democrats warned in a news release that the bill would be “dead on arrival.”
“The Senate worked on this bill for three months and there was zero consultation with the House about what they were putting in their bill,” Patton said. “[We] took three weeks to examine the bill and make amendments, and we kept the Senate informed.”
Under the House bill, slots would be located at nine horse racetracks around the state, including Philadelphia Park in Bensalem, and at two other locations: one in Philadelphia and another in the Pittsburgh area. The Senate would allow slots to be located only at eight racetracks.
House leaders say their bill is superior because it would generate more revenue for the state – up to $1 billion compared to an estimated $300 million under the Senate’s bill – and it would allow slot venues to open sooner because it contains fewer restrictions.
Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat, has endorsed the House’s proposal but is willing to support the Senate measure. “He’s flexible either way,” spokeswoman Kate Phillips said. “His main goal throughout has been to [create] a new revenue stream [by recapturing gambling revenues] that the state has been losing to its neighbors for years, and using that money for property tax relief.”
But several senators who initially supported slots now are saying they would rather go without slots than pass the House’s bill. The Senate narrowly passed its own slots bill by a 27-22 vote. It would take only two senators to change their votes for gambling expansion to fall through.
Several Democrats who voted for the Senate bill said they won’t support the House bill because it’s missing key safety guards: it eliminates a ban on campaign contributions from gambling interests; it takes some control from the governor on appointing a new state gaming control board; and it weakens the ability of the state to audit how much money the slots are making.
Meanwhile, at least four Republicans who supported the Senate slots bill say they won’t support the House’s proposal to allow slots at non-racetrack venues.
They argue that the special slots parlors will take away too much business from the racetracks, which already are struggling to compete with racetracks in neighboring states that have slots.
“I tried to warn them,” Tomlinson said of House leaders. “You can kill this thing by overloading it, and apparently they have.”