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Ohio Senate addresses distribution of promised racino funds
By ROBERT CONNELLY
COLUMBUS
Among the items in ongoing state budget talks at the Ohio Senate is an amendment to address the promised $500,000 payment to Ohio’s racino communities, including Austintown Township.
Senate Minority Leader Joe Schiavoni of Boardman, D-33rd, submitted late last week an amendment featuring an annual payment with half coming from an existing track-relocation fund and half from the operator in each of the six eligible racino communities.
Penn National will pay $150 million over 10 years into the track relocation fund for moving tracks from Toledo to Dayton and from Grove City, Ohio, to Austintown. Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course opened in September 2014.
What is in front of the Senate now is different from what Schiavoni submitted last week, in that it’s for two years and not annually. The Senate will discuss a $500,000 payment for two years going to the six eligible racino communities.
Half of that payment will still come from the track relocation fund and half from the operator within that community.
That is similar to what Republican Gov. John Kasich line-vetoed in late December. Schiavoni worked with fellow state Sen. Bill Beagle of Tipp City, R-5th, on the racino payment amendment. He and Beagle worked on the failed amendment in December as well.
This new amendment differs in length from the failed December amendment, which was three years instead of the current proposal for two years.
“We haven’t had the opportunity to review and analyze the specific language yet. In general, we completely sympathize with our host communities’ desire to obtain the additional monies they were promised, but it was always our understanding that those payments would be made frome the racetrack relocation fees that were paid to the state,” said Bob Tenenbaum, spokesperson for Penn National.
“It’s important to keep in mind that we paid $75 million to the state just for the right to do business in Austintown Township, so we believe we have more than paid our fair share.”
Beagle said in a statement Tuesday: “I am trying to find a very precise solution that will allow the local jurisdictions some funds in addition to what they already receive, allow the racino operators certainty in terms of their obligation and keep the cost to the state at a level the administration can support. I don’t know that we’re ever going to find a dollar figure that everyone likes, but if we can find a figure that avoids lawsuits and vetoes, then maybe that’s the right number.”
“I’m hopeful that the promises made to these communities years ago will finally be fulfilled,” Schiavoni said.
Austintown Trustee Ken Carano said he heard about the amendment from Schiavoni early Tuesday. “We were really looking for a little bit more money, but the fact of the matter is a lot of the racino host communities, this would compensate them for a lot of the money they did spend,” Carano said. “The question will be, will the [Ohio] House change it? We know it will go into the conference committee, and because it asks for half the payment from the state, we hope the governor will not veto it.”
Carano said he emailed representatives of the six racino communities that participated in a summit earlier this year in Columbus when he heard about the proposal. Anderson Township Adminstrator Vicky Earhart was one of those who heard from Carano.
“I’m pleased, but that’s tempered by the fact that it’s not an ongoing” payment, she said.