As reported in media today (here and here) the Senate passed an amendment that would provide a temporary fix for the Supreme Court decision from last month that struck down the host fee (local share assessment) that casinos pay to counties and municipalities.
The amendment would create a “slot machine license operation fee” that would be a temporary measure in place from January 1-May 1, 2017. The amendment then recites the host fee language and distinctions as Act 71 did originally, depending on the category of casino and the class of county/municipality that it is located. Rivers Casino (category 2) is in Allegheny County (second class county) in the City of Pittsburgh (second class city). The amendment would keep the 2% to the County (the county portion of the host fee was never challenged in the lawsuit, but it was struck out by the decision) and Pittsburgh would receive $10 million (the amendment would omit the “2% or”).
As mentioned in the second newspaper article the casino that brought the lawsuit has proposed 4% of GTR to the host municipality as a long term fix, which, based on last year’s figures, would result in about $1 million more for Pittsburgh from Rivers.
