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Schiavoni in talks for vote on amended HB 490 with racino payments added
By ROBERT CONNELLY
AUSTINTOWN
State Senate Minority Leader Joe Schiavoni, D-33rd, is working with state Sen. Bill Beagle, R-Tipp City, on an amendment to a current bill to ensure Austintown and Dayton can receive their annual $500,000 racino payments by the Dec. 31 deadline.
Schiavoni had spoken of using House Bill 490 as that vehicle, as he had whipped up support from the Democratic state senators. By late Tuesday, he was unsure if that bill could pass even without this latest amendment.
Annual payments are due, by existing legislation, to Austintown and Dayton — communities that did not have existing racetracks — for help in improving infrastructure and services such as police and fire, Schiavoni explained. Both communities had tracks moved to their communities by Penn National Gaming.
Schiavoni explained that he is working with Beagle on which bill to attach the amendment — one that has gaming language in it already — and then to gain support for it. Schiavoni had targeted HB 490 because it had sections related to retirement funds for thoroughbred and harness horsemen.
“We just want to make sure we get it in a bill that’s going to pass,” Schiavoni said. “Everything is so unclear because everything moves so quickly the last two weeks.”
If HB 490 is that vehicle, it already has passed in the Ohio House. It could be voted on by the state Senate as soon as Thursday after committee meetings take place this week.
The proposed amendment, a copy of which Schiavoni provided The Vindicator, indicated the payment would come from the track-relocation fund and not from Penn National, which pays $15 million a year into that fund.
But Rob Nichols, spokesman for Gov. John Kasich, stressed: “We think it’s clear the responsibility is with the operators” for that payment.
Penn National spokesman Bob Tenenbaum declined to comment due to ongoing negotiations.
HB 490 was inspired by the criminal dumping of 30,000 gallons of oil and gas drilling waste into the Mahoning River near Youngstown last year and seeks stiffer penalties for oil, gas and brine disposal violations.
The last scheduled day of the General Assembly before the year-end recess is Dec. 11. But Dec. 17 and 18 are set aside as possible days if last-minute business needs to be completed.
State Rep. Ronald V. Gerberry of Austintown, D-59th, sat on the six-person committee that pushed for the memorandum of understanding for the $500,000 payments during the initial 2012 racinos bill.
“We’re going to do our best to get it done,” Gerberry said. “We’re trying to get this accomplished, but it’s fluid. It’s a lame-duck session.”
The $500,000 payments, much like the $2 million payments already received by the communities, are designated to be used 50-50 for infrastructure and capital improvements and general-fund use. Austintown used its $2 million for paying off a communications system debt and resurfacing township roads.
The original racino bill in 2012 set the deadline of Dec. 31, 2014, for the $500,000 payments to be made to communities where new racinos have been built.
Last year’s House Bill 59 clarified the language dealing with the two $1 million payments and the annual $500,000 payments and excluded Franklin County, where Scioto Downs Racino is located, from the annual payment. That was because it receives revenue from Hollywood Casino Columbus, which is owned by Penn National.
The track-relocation fund pays for gambling addiction, gives funding to communities where a track previously had been, and the remainder to a general-revenue fund. Once the fund hits zero, it ceases to exist.
Within Penn National’s third-quarter earnings report, it was revealed the company paid $7.5 million of the $75 million relocation fee upon opening Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course, and will make 18 semiannual payments of $4.8 million one year after opening to pay that off.
Likewise, Penn National paid $10 million of the $50 million license fee in this year’s second quarter and $15 million when the facility opened — meaning half of that license fee is paid. The remaining half, $25 million, will be paid on the one-year anniversary of Hollywood Gaming.
The track-relocation fee was the same for Hollywood Gaming at Dayton Raceway.