Plunderbund » Casinos

Casino openings delayed, but don’t blame Kasich (says Kasich)

ModernEsquire — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:50:31 +0000

To understanding today’s news about the casinos, let’s recap some stories from 2010 shall we?

October 2010: Governor Strickland, acting pursuant to a legislative mandate created by the Republican General Assembly announces his appointments to the Ohio Casino Commission, the regulatory authority that will license the casinos mandated by a constitutional amendment voters overwhelming passed in 2009 with promise it will create as soon as possible tens of thousands of jobs.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer, a frequent critic of Strickland, praises Strickland’s appointments to the Commission as “first rate choices.”

“Strickland, to his credit, especially given election-year pressures, [...]

Kasich’s VLT deal loses money for the state, Dispatch calls it a win

Joseph — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 21:37:15 +0000

On Sunday the Dispatch ran a piece titled Casino deal a win for almost everyone, completely forgetting that they had called a much better deal “a rip off” just two years earlier.

The deal in question, proposed by John Kasich, allows racetrack owners to place VLTs (slots) at their tracks in exchange for a $50 million license fee and 33.5 percent tax on revenue.

The fee and tax rate of Kasich’s deal are MUCH lower than the deal proposed by Strickland back in 2009 of a $65 million license fee and a 50 percent tax on revenue. Clearly [...]

Yet another example of the snouts in the trough, thanks to Kasich…

ModernEsquire — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 00:37:06 +0000

You’ve got to read Mark Naymik’s story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

On Sunday, Naymik reported that a private lottery operator had its lobbyist hand deliver a written piece of legislation to the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee that would… amazingly, privatize the Ohio Lottery Commission’s operations. The company presenting the proposal just happens to have retained longtime political confident Donald G. Thibaut as a lobbyist.

Mind you, there never was a single witness, let alone a single hearing, that discussed the merits of privatization of the Lottery Commission. Normally, such privatization efforts are the subject of [...]

[UPDATED:] The Ohio Senate listened and revised the budget even further (but…)

ModernEsquire — Tue, 31 May 2011 23:11:07 +0000

It’s hard to capture every nuisance and change in the budget when it takes the Senate GOP caucus fifteen pages just to describe the amendments, and I haven’t the time (or yet present ability) to read the amendments myself.

WHAT’S OUT:

Workers Compensation Council. InnovationOhio was quick to declare a partial victory in that the Ohio Senate’s omnibus budget amendment eliminates the unstaffed Workers Compensation Council. That’s pretty remarkable when you consider ordinarily such a move should have been made in the separate budget for Workers Compensation that has already been signed into law. Also, we all know that [...]

Holy craps!

ModernEsquire — Thu, 12 May 2011 19:35:03 +0000

Sorry for the title, but I just can’t even hold it back anymore.

Anyone else see this post on the Dispatch’s Daily Briefing blog this afternoon is going to have the same reaction. This was a one-year consultancy agreement:

Gaming expert to make $15 million from state

…

Moelis, which along with Spectrum Gaming was hired to advise Kasich on casinos and other gambling-related issues in Ohio, will be paid a monthly retainer fee of $200,000 over the year-long contract. Additionally, the Los Angeles-based company can earn up to $13 million in incentives fees.

According to the contract, which [...]

Casinos halt construction in Cincinnati and Cleveland over Kasich’s tax stance

ModernEsquire — Wed, 11 May 2011 20:27:42 +0000

The Cincinnati Enquirer has the story:

The announcement idles thousands of construction jobs as Rock balks at taxes millions higher than initially envisioned. Specifically, the House’s budget seeks to apply the 0.26 percent CAT tax to total betting at Ohio’s four planned casinos rather than just net losses by gamblers, the industry’s standard definition of revenue. If Ohio enacted the proposal it would mean a CAT tax bill for all four casinos possibly 10 times higher than the $5.2 million developers envisioned.

Rock Gaming officials have become increasingly vocal in the last two months about Ohio officials’ considerations on [...]

Take three? House GOP takes another crack at State budget.

ModernEsquire — Tue, 03 May 2011 14:14:20 +0000

Yesterday, the Columbus Dispatch reported that the House Republicans were set to consider some 200 amendments submitted in response to the Substitute House Bill they introduced for the State’s budget Thursday afternoon. Now the fate of these amendments are far from certain, but among the things the House GOP is being urged to change are:

Their new provision that would give county commissioners authority to privatize county jails. It’s getting to the point where Ohio’s criminals may never actually be punished by the State, but out-of-state corporations hired to mete out punishment for profits. Some Cincinnati-area lawmakers want to [...]

Kasich’s pals lobby for Indiana casino that directly benefits from Kasich’s delays

Joseph — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 04:31:18 +0000

John Kasich's long time friends Doug Preisse and Robert Klaffky are now lobbyists working for Pinnacle, the owner of a large Indiana casino company. As long as Kasich delays making a decision about Ohio's casinos, Indiana casinos continue to thrive. Coincidence?

Kasich’s indecision delaying billions in investment, thousands of new jobs

Joseph — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 15:30:52 +0000

John Kasich came into office promising to “move at the speed of business” to increase investment in Ohio and help bring back jobs lost as a result of the national recession.

As part of his highly touted economic development efforts Kasich has so far managed to spend millions of state dollars to keep two Ohio-based companies in Ohio – companies who were never really considering leaving the state – companies who weren’t even planning on expanding their operations.

Meanwhile billions of dollars of new investment has been ready to flow into Ohio, money that would create thousands of decent-paying [...]

[Exclusive:] Kasich to name former Ohio Speaker/’08 RNC Co-Chair Jo Ann Davidson as Chair of the Ohio Casino Commission

ModernEsquire — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 17:27:47 +0000

A credible source has informed us that Governor Kasich is poised to announce that former Ohio House Speaker Jo Ann Davidson will be named as the Chair of the Ohio Casino Commission imminently.

Speaker Davidson served as the first (and only) female Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives from 1996 until 2001. This, of course, will solve all of Kasich’s problems regarding that pesky “diversity” issue, right?

During her tenure as Speaker, the House enacted a deregulation of the electricity utilities, a policy so disastrous for Ohio’s economy that Republican Speaker Jon Husted worked with Governor Ted Strickland in [...]