ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) – New Jersey voters are being promised that millions of dollars in new funding will flow to programs for senior citizens, the horse racing industry and to help a struggling Atlantic City – if only they approve a ballot question authorizing two new casinos in the northern part of the state near New York City.
But what they’re not being told is what tax rate the new casinos would pay – and exactly how much new money would be available.
On Tuesday, a state lawmaker proposed specific tax rates for the new gambling halls. Assemblyman Ralph Caputo told The Associated Press a casino at the Meadowlands Racetrack might be taxed at 35 to 40 percent, while a costlier one in Jersey City could pay 15 to 20 percent.
The proposal came as pro- and anti-casino expansion forces are pouring millions of dollars into ads in the nation’s most expensive media market to influence the outcome of the November referendum.
“We’ve lagged behind in terms of being transparent,” said Caputo, a northern New Jersey Democrat and former casino worker. “There’s no use kidding anybody about that. The tax rate needs to be established.”
Since authorizing the referendum in March, New Jersey lawmakers have insisted they’ll work out the details of the plan – such as the exact location of the two casinos, and the tax rate they’ll pay – in so-called “enabling legislation” that may or may not be done before voters cast their ballots on the proposal.
Sen. Paul Sarlo, who has worked closely with fellow Democratic Senate President Steve Sweeney on the casino expansion plan, does not expect those decisions to be made before the referendum. He said the Legislature has thus far been unable to agree on a plan to fund transportation expenses, and predicted similar difficulty trying to forge an agreement on casino taxes in less than two months before the vote.
“Plus, I don’t think people are paying that much attention to this,” he said. “I don’t know that giving them additional details is going to get them more engaged.”
Meadowlands track operator Jeff Gural and Hard Rock International want to build a casino at the East Rutherford sports complex where the NFL’s Jets and Giants play their home games. A second casino in Jersey City, the state’s second largest city directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan, could cost $4 billion to $5 billion.
Atlantic City’s eight casinos pay 8 percent in taxes, along with state-mandated redevelopment assessments of 1.25 percent.
Lobbying groups are running ads for and against the proposed expansion. Trenton’s Bad Bet, which includes the president of the union representing casino workers in Atlantic City, and the Atlantic City-area business groups, says voters are being asked to buy a pig in a poke.
“It’s so vague that we have no idea who is going to build these casinos, where they will be built or how much they will pay in taxes,” said spokesman Bill Cortese Jr. “People don’t know what they will be voting on.”
The group is funded in part by Genting Group, whose profitable Resorts World casino at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, New York, could be hurt by one or more casinos nearby in northern New Jersey.
A pro-expansion group, Our Turn NJ, has been running ads stressing that senior citizen programs could see $200 million in new funding each year. The group is backed by Paul Fireman, the Reebok footwear magnate who is proposing the Jersey City casino, and Gural, who has offered to pay the same 55 percent tax rate that Pennsylvania slot machines are taxed at. But that offer came before New Jersey set a $1 billion minimum investment for a new casino project.
Follow Wayne Parry at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.
