No cards have yet been dealt, not a roulette wheel spun, and no dice have been tossed, yet several stakeholders are counting on table games to fund their budgetary needs. In Allegheny County this includes the Carnegie Libraries and the Allegheny County Library Association, as well as the tourism agency in Monroeville. Statewide there will be many others.
And this should come as no surprise: the original 2004 slots bill allowed for economic development handouts for debt at Pittsburgh International Airport, to pay off debts related to subsidy programs administered by Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, for a hockey arena, for the convention center, etc., etc.
Of course the state needs the licensing fee money for this year’s budget and then when the table game enterprise is up and running it can count on recurring revenue. As one state representative noted, using slots for budgets and economic development projects is the worst way to raise revenue "’except for all the other worst ways."
This all raises a line of inquiry: how would the state and the region fund its "needs" without the slot money? Would the absence of $150 million for debt at the airport have forced the County and the Airport Authority to raise fees or possibly look at turning the facility over to a private operator to raise money and achieve efficiencies to retire the debt? Would the City of Pittsburgh, caught in the quagmire of legacy costs, be able to find the money to pay off the Pittsburgh Development Fund? How would the hockey arena be built?
As much as it would be desirable to witness, it seems awfully unlikely that the City and the County would have cut general spending in order to save money to devote annual allotments to these projects.