A South Carolina legislator who favors allowing a big casino along Interstate 95 is offering a plan to protect forests and farmland from development by using gambling tax revenues generated by the casino.
State Rep. Bruce Bannister, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, said he will introduce an amendment to a gambling bill he supports that would provide 35 percent of the casino’s tax revenue to the S.C. Conservation Bank, the agency charged with protecting land across the state.
A gambling hall and associated resort development could generate about $100 million in tax revenue for the state annually and millions more for counties in the immediate area, according to Santee Development Corp., a company interested in developing a casino on I-95. If those revenues came in, about $35 million would go to the Conservation Bank.
