Slots and taxes
Alan Foreman, who serves as counsel to the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association and -- whether he enjoys it or not -- point man for slots in Maryland, took part in a debate with Aaron Meisner, of Stop Slots Maryland, recently on the Midday show. It was a good discussion, with Meisner challenging a lot of the claims and promises of tax relief for Marylanders. (In a future debate, we've really got to get someone from the Democratic leadership in the state to stand up for the pro-slots side. Having Foreman as spokesman for that side suggests it's the horse-race industry that will benefit most from 15,000 slot machines in Maryland.)
Anyway, here's Foreman with a follow-up to the radio debate:
"In my appearance with Aaron Meisner last week, I stated that slots in Pennsylvania had begun to generate significant property tax relief for homeowners, which was one of the purposes for legalizing slots in Pennsylvania. Meissner said that there had been no such relief and you and I noted that they had only been operational for a short time.
"This is hot off the press. There are only 5 sites operational at this time. Philadelphia has begun receiving $613 million in property tax relief from slots play. There has been one previous reduction and this one will result in homeowners in the Philadelphia suburbs receiving another $139.20 in tax reductions from this distribution.
"The overall property tax reduction averages $254 per homeowner, with reductions as high as $623 in Chester Upland in Delaware County to $75 in Upper Merion (upper class) in Montgomery County.
In addition, there will be a reduction of $86.5 million in wage-tax relief for Philadelphia. Thirty-seven suburban Philadelphia school districts will get an additional $17 million to make up for wage- taxes their residents pay in Philadelphia. I don't think anyone in Philadelphia and surrounding areas is calling slots evil."
Comments
To the contrary, there are plenty of people in PA who are calling slots evil, and much worse. The PA law, which was passed in the middle of the night over the Fourth of July weekend in 2004 without a single public hearing, did nothing to keep casinos out of residential areas. In fact, it took a huge effort on the part of residents and historic preservationists to keep a casinos out of the nationally historic Gettysburg Battlefield area. Now, Philadelphia residents are fighting over whether a casino can be built one-quarter of a mile from residence, church, school or playground, or whether a half mile would make it better. Amazing.
Meanwhile, this property tax relief so far is small enough so that many people are wondering why they supported slots in the first place. Allegations of corruption have already been problematic in both the legislature and the state's gambling control board. Most neighborhoods near casinos are bracing for the spike in Domestic Violence that The National Gambling Impact Commission observed in the vast majority of areas with gambling.
Lastly, PA lawmakers have already begun to break from the promises of tax relief and have started to propose redirecting slots money to other issues. So in the end, PA residents are getting a raw deal from their politicians. High taxes, predatory gambling, and the beginnings of a growing set of social problems.
But the special interests and lobbyists are happy now that they have saddled the people of PA with this lousy policy.
Learn more at http://www.casinofreephila.org/
But Mr. Foreman still insists that no amount of human misery and destroyed lives is too high a price to pay to keep a small handful of horse owners fat and happy on state subsidies. Horse racing is not attracting fans anywhere in the country, and slots is not fixing the problem. You can't force people to watch horse racing. The interest just isn't there.
Slots benefits only the well-connnected special interests and has no public policy justification whatsoever.
Posted by: Aaron Meisner | May 7, 2008 1:35 PM
Mr. Meisner,
I have one simple question for the anti-slots lobby:
Are you against the horse-racing industry as well? Because, frankly, there is already plenty of gambling going on in Maryland. Between the tracks, Keno, the lottery, powerball, scratch-offs given to children in birthday cards, I could go on.
With all these forms of institutionalized gambling in a state that recently became the country's wealthiest I fail to see how the addition of slot machines will send us into the seventh level of hell.
I am not an advocate of slots, I'm not against them either. This debate to me just seems silly. Either make them legal, or don't. Either way we will have to deal with a certain set of consequences.
Yes, property values are likely to fall around the parlors. And yes, legalized gambling does tend to attract people that really shouldn't be doing it anyway.
But people are already doing that. There are people that spend their paychecks on lottery tickets everyweek. If you are going to call one form of gambling amoral then all forms must be considered amoral as well.
Posted by: James From Hampden | May 9, 2008 2:42 PM