43
Local legislators are puzzled why more racino lawmakers aren't involved with $500K racino payment talk
By ROBERT CONNELLY
AUSTINTOWN
Two Mahoning Valley state legislators are trying to rally leaders in other communities with racinos to help get a promised $500,000 annual payment out of the new state budget.
So far, their efforts have not garnered much support.
In fact, the lack of legislators working with the Valley delegation on the issue is a mystery, said state Rep. Ronald V. Gerberry of Austintown, D-59th.
“I think there should be at least 10 to 15 state reps crying over here saying, ‘Why haven’t these communities gotten their money?’” said Gerberry. “I don’t know why there isn’t more of a push from every racino community. ... Don’t you think you would have gotten involved? Actively involved?”
Gerberry is continuing to work with state Sen. Joe Schiavoni of Boardman, D-33rd, and Sen. Bill Beagle of Tipp City, R-5th. Beagle will be meeting this week with the office of Republican Gov. John Kasich about the racino payment issue.
Austintown Trustee Ken Carano was approved last week by township officials to draft a letter to the other racino locales to try to organize a summit with local and state officials from each community eligible for the payment.
Messages left by The Vindicator for officials in other communities eligible for the payment — namely Lebanon, Northfield village and the village of North Randall — were not returned.
Another community highly interested in the payment debate is Anderson Township, which borders Cincinnati and has a piece of property that hugs the Ohio River where Belterra Park Gaming & Entertainment Center opened in May 2014.
Anderson Township Administrator Vicky Earhart said she was against the racino amendment in December because it would have excluded Anderson from receiving $500,000 annually.
“There were several pieces of legislation that have occurred over the last few years, and the intent ... of all this legislation was to provide the funding for all the racinos’ communities,” she said.
Since Belterra opened last May, local fire officials’ response to the facility has gone up 110 percent, and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, which serves that township, has an increase in response to the racino of 583 percent, Earhart said.
A message to state Sen. Shannon Jones of Springboro, R-7th, was not returned. The area she represents includes both Belterra and Lebanon’s Miami Valley Gaming, which opened in December 2013.
Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley has previously said her city had planned on having the $500,000 payment in its 2015 budget. She has been vocal about wanting the payment to come through as promised since 2015 began. Messages to her office were not returned.
Discussions regarding the $500,000 payment promised to racino communities have been quiet since late December, when Kasich line-vetoed an amendment that would have clarified who qualified and where the money would come from.
That amendment would have given funds only to Dayton and Austintown for a three-year period, with half the funds coming from the track operator and the other half from the state’s track-relocation fund. Penn National Gaming Inc. owns both of those racinos and will pay $150 million over 10 years for the relocation of those tracks to those communities.
During the initial racino bill, there was a memorandum of understanding that said six of the seven racino communities would get $500,000 on an annual basis. Those funds would be earmarked for fire and police services and infrastructure improvements. The seventh racino, Scioto Downs in Columbus, was excluded because it receives a casino host fee from Penn National-owned Hollywood Casino Columbus.
In explaining his veto, Kasich explained that he believed the payment was for all six communities and that the $500,000 would come from the racino operators.
Gerberry and Schiavoni want the racino payment to be addressed. Schiavoni was hopeful that there would be language in Kasich’s initial biennial budget proposal regarding the payment.
“I think that’s probably an appropriate place to get it done, and you’ve got people that are against it,” Gerberry said of its being addressed in the budget. “It’s harder to do an individual bill.”
“We need to get them on board,” Schiavoni said of the governor’s office. “They’ve got to buy into this and give us some guidance. They made the promise to do this.”
Penn National officials had been critical of the amendment before it was vetoed, often referring to it as a special tax. After the veto, Penn National “applauded” Kasich for viewing the payment as needed for the other tracks and operators, besides just Penn National.
“Our point of view remains the same. We believe that we’ve paid millions of dollars into the racetrack-relocation fund, and we believe that this money should come from that fund,” said Bob Tenenbaum, spokesman for Penn National.
“We’re not asking for a lot of money ... $500,000 a year to maintain police and fire protection and possible infrastructure improvements,” Gerberry said. “I would hope we can get it done by June.”