Senate Committee Advances Table Games Legislation with Local Share Assessment
Legislation would provide relief to neighborhoods while maintaining openness and transparency

HARRISBURG, October 8, 2009 — The Pennsylvania State Senate Community, Economic and Recreational Development Committee, Thursday, approved Senate Bill 1033, stand-alone legislation authorizing table games in Pennsylvania. A key provision in the bill is a 2% local tax on table games revenue at casinos throughout the state. In Philadelphia, part of that local share will be directed to benefit neighborhoods in the immediate vicinity of casinos.

Under S.B. 1033, local share funds would be managed by an improvement district with an advisory board whose members are elected directly by the local community. Board members would be subject to the Ethics Act, Right-to-Know-Law, and Adverse Interest Act. Elected officials would serve solely in a non-voting capacity.

“If we are going to have a board that manages this money, there has to be community control,” said Farnese. “The mechanism needs to be open, transparent, and subject to the highest standards of ethical conduct.”

The local share provision was crafted to ensure that no existing agreements with casinos would be affected. ”If table games are coming to Pennsylvania, we need to make sure that casinos pay their fair share,” said Farnese. “But we also don’t want to interfere with any efforts that communities have made on their own."

Current estimates are that this local share revenue could generate about $1.2 million a year to help improve and maintain those neighborhoods most affected by the presence of the casinos.

The Community, Economic and Recreational Development Committee also advanced Senate Bill 1088 - legislation which overhauls major portions of the Gaming Act and creates new operational practices for the Gaming Control Board, such as, requiring the Board to hold public hearings and accept public comment whenever a casino seeks to redesign on relocate and to hold such hearings in the host city.

Senate Bills 1033 and 1088 are the Senate’s answer to the House’s version of the Senate’s first gaming reform legislation, Senate Bill 711. A week ago, the House passed S.B. 711 with as many as 180 amendments, including table games.

Senator Farnese had continuously urged his colleagues to carve table games from S.B. 711 and consider them instead, in a separate bill.

“Using reform legislation to expand the very thing you are trying to reform defeats the whole point of the bill,” said the senator. “I am pleased that in the end, the gaming reform bill remained separate, the way the Senate had originally intended.”

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About Senator Larry Farnese: Sen. Farnese, a Democrat, represents the First Senatorial District of Pennsylvania. He has been a member of the Senate since January 2009 and serves on the following Senate Committees: Veterans Affairs & Emergency Preparedness (Minority Chair), Appropriations, Banking & Insurance, Communications & Technology, Education, and Labor & Industry. He is also an appointed member of the Pennsylvania Housing Advisory Committee, a state interagency council tasked with finding solutions to ending homelessness throughout the Commonwealth.

About Sen. Farnese’s District: The First Senatorial District includes these Philadelphia neighborhoods: Bella Vista, Brewery Town, Chinatown, Eastwick, Fairmount, Fishtown, Girard Estate, Graduate Hospital, Grays Ferry, Hawthorne, Jefferson Square, Logan Circle, Lower Kensington, Northern Liberties, Old City, Packer Park, Pennsport, Point Breeze, Port Richmond, Queen Village, Rittenhouse Square, Society Hill, Washington West, and Whitman.