Budget Expected Today...101 Days Late

Pennsylvania Senate leaders say they expect to sign off on the House appropriations bill tomorrow morning. The chamber will also vote on a bill legalizing table games at casinos.
A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi says staffers spent the day reviewing House Bill 1416, and haven’t found any line items they object to. Meeting just off the Senate floor, the Community, Economic and Recreational Development Committee amended and approved a measure bringing table games to Pennsylvania’s casinos.
The legislation sets a 14-percent tax rate.
That’s compared to the House bill’s tax rate of 34%.
Sponsor Robert Tomlinson, a Bucks County Republican, says the House’s figure is a “nonstarter.”

"If you really want to create the jobs, and you want to collect more money you’ll keep the tax rate low. You keep the tax rate low they put more tables out, they put lower denominations of tables out. You’ll create more activity and more play. And more people will come and will spend more on that. The higher the tax rate the less the owners will be able to do."

2 percent of that total would go to the municipalities where casinos are located.

Among other differences, the measure keeps the limit on slot machines at Category 3 resort casinos at 500.
The House legislation would expand that to 15-hundred, but Senate Community, Economic and Recreational Development Committee Chair Jane Earll says that’s a bad idea.

"Many of us in the Senate believe we should not be reconfiguring the parameters of the original Category 3 requirements. That’s not the purpose of table games. It fell outside the scope completely."

The chamber is also expected to vote on the appropriations bill passed earlier this week by the House. If that goes through, it heads to Governor Rendell’s desk.