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Saturday, 04 February 2012 06:00

In short, legalized gambling in this state has not lived up to its rosy expectations, which former Gov, Ed Rendell thought would be an average savings on school property taxes of 23 percent. That estimate was down to 15 to 20 percent by the time the Legislature passed the slots legislation in July 2004.

As the Post-Gazette's Mark Belko reported Wednesday, the average savings on property tax statewide will be $198 per homeowner this year, and the percentage of total tax differs from community to community.

A property owner with a $100,000 home in Bethel Park, for instance, is getting a school property tax cut of only 6.5 percent due to casino gambling. In Moon it's 6.2 percent, in McCandless 7.3 percent, in Penn Hills 7.3 percent and in Plum 9.4 percent. Some homeowners do better; in Pittsburgh the reduction is 19.3 percent on a $100,000 house, which works out to $269 in tax savings. But for many people the early promises still fall short.

While it is easy to say that many government estimates turn out to be off the mark, no matter what the issue, that wasn't the only flawed prediction made on legalized gambling. Its opponents said that moral degradation would go hand in hand with property blight if slots were legalized.

While doubtless some problems have occurred, the critics' predictions were no more accurate than the estimates of property tax relief made by politicians and others. After all, nobody ever promised that Pennsylvanians would have all their property taxes taken care of by casinos.

Besides, who would refuse a yearly $198 cut in their property taxes? And how much worse would be the finances of the already strapped city and county if they had to find an extra $5.5 million and $10 million, the respective shares they receive annually for having a casino within their boundaries?

Objecting to the less-than-anticipated tax relief ignores other factors. Pennsylvania is still four casinos short of having the full complement of 14 casinos open and operating under the law, which means that revenue is only likely to rise in the future, particularly after the recession weakens its grip.

When the benefits of the hundreds of new jobs in the gaming industry are factored in, the public bet doesn't seem like such a loser.

Comments (2)

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written by LeBro, February 04, 2012 - 09:39 AM

The gambling law was a loser for all the local bars and restaurants and others who could not get a license to have a couple of slots machines in their establishments because the out of state gambling corporations with deep pockets lined the politican's pockets with plentiful payola so that they would have a monopoly in the gambling business.

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written by avigilantone, February 04, 2012 - 11:29 AM

It seems like the Editorial Board is talking out of both sides of their mouth. The gambling issue was to provide sizable tax relief, if not eradicate property taxes altogether. But like any new tax, a myriad of government programs are created, special interests line up and handouts in the slight of hand we call “government” has occurred.

My best recollection besides this tax going for property tax relief, the pie has been divided by these interests; Economic Development projects, Consol Energy Center ($225 million), injured highway worker fund, volunteer fire departments and $1 million a year to the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Over time, we’re sure the list of handouts will grow and "so-called" property tax relief shrink while taxes continue to rise.

As to the negative impact, not much media attention has been given to gambling addiction, bankruptcy, divorce, crime and the gambling losses that take money out of the economy. However, there have been multiple stories out of the Philly area of gamblers leaving their children locked in casino parking lots while they take their chance at lady luck.

Gary J. English
avigilantone at yahoo dot com

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