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Date Posted: 13:46:45 02/20/03 Thu
Author: copied from THE JERSEY JOURNAL
Subject: Slot Machine At Racetracks News


Odds may be in gov's favor on video lottery



Thursday, February 20, 2003





This is a tale of two commissions.

They could be subtitled Irony and Urgency, but both are about money: to provide local property tax relief, to improve horse racing in New Jersey and to nourish budget-starved state programs.

Democratic Albio Sires is a two-time player - first as mayor of West New York, and now as Assembly speaker.

Republican Gov. Christie Whitman appointed Sires to her Property Tax Commission in December 1997. Ten months later, that commission made 59 recommendations; most of them were ignored, but one would allow urban-aid qualified communities to levy parking, entertainment, hotel and motel taxes for "direct tax relief to property taxpayers."

As speaker, Sires endorses a 7 percent luxury tax on hotel and motel rooms, but not just in urban aid communities. Still to be introduced, the proposal is projected to raise $120 million that would be split between the state, the counties and local municipalities. Under the commission recommendation, county tax boards would allow the hotel revenue as a "property tax credit toward the total property tax" in each community. The proposal has drawn the support of the State League of Municipalities.

Municipalities, in addition to their share of the proposed hotel tax, are also expecting a 7.7 percent municipal aid increase recommended Feb. 4 by Gov. James E. McGreevey for the fiscal year starting July 1.

Thus, Whitman's tax commission could help bail out the money-desperate McGreevey, never at a loss of words for policies of his Republican predecessor.

McGreevey got into the commission game himself Feb. 10, appointing an eight-member panel to study the feasibility of installing video lottery terminals at the state's horse racing tracks.

Former Democratic Gov. Brendan T. Byrne heads the panel, which is expected to submit its recommendations in May - which would presumably allow enough time for the Legislature to set in motion a plan to install the video lottery terminals before the June 30 summer budget recess, which would raise a projected $200 million in fiscal 2004.

But critics - notably Sen. William A. Gormley, R-Atlantic - maintain video lottery terminals are an extension of gambling and must be approved by voters in a referendum under the state constitution, which currently limits games of skill where a player wins or loses money to within Atlantic City only.

McGreevey is looking for all the budget money he can find, so to get this $200 million he will have to rely on a 1982 opinion from the state attorney general that ruled slot machines in the Atlantic City casinos are a game of "skill," but video lotteries a game of "chance."

The distinction between the two could allow McGreevey to put the lottery terminals in racetracks without legislative approval, and on Jan. 16, Sen. Joseph Suliga, D-Middlesex, introduced a bill that would establish video lotteries at the Meadowlands Race Track in East Rutherford, Freehold Raceway and Monmouth Park Race Course, all operated by the state's Sports and Exposition Authority.

He still faces opposition, however.

On Feb. 10, Gormley said McGreevey's budget plan to increase the casino revenue tax from 8 to 10 percent, and impose a 6 percent sales tax on casino complimentaries, was doomed. Gormley also bad-mouthed the 7 percent hotel luxury tax.

Such narrow thinking suggests only Atlantic City would flourish - hardly a tenable position if Gormley seeks the Republican gubernatorial nomination in three years.

Sires could emerge as his enemy at the gate in 2005.

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Replies:

[> Re: Slot Machine At Racetracks News -- zuwahrah, 14:03:37 02/20/03 Thu


VLTs might be a good way to introduce people to casino gambling.


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