State Legislator Will Outline Thursday Where Money Derived From North Jersey Casino Would Go

A state senator plans to introduce a measure Thursday that will explain, in detail, how state funding derived from North Jersey casinos would be used to should one or two be built.

The resolution will express the Legislature’s intent to approve a Senate proposal allowing the state constitution to be amended and authorizing casino gaming in North Jersey.

Assemblyman Joseph Caputo (D-Essex), chairman of the Assembly’s Tourism, Gaming, and Arts Committee, drafted the resolution. It states that revenues derived from North Jersey casinos would be used, at least in part, to aid programs that help get food and medicine to the elderly, including Meals on Wheels, public space initiatives, improve transportation and airports, and promote Atlantic City as a “destination resort.”

The resolution includes the intent of the Legislature to establish a tax rate considerably higher than the tax rate currently applied to revenues derived from casino gambling in Atlantic City. The revenues will be tiered according to the amount of the investment made for each casino development. A company that already owns an Atlantic City casino must own half of any casino that is built up north.

“It is important that the Legislature’s intent for any funding coming out of a casino built in the north is spelled out clearly and as definitively as possible,” Caputo said in a statement released Monday afternoon. “Voters should... know where we stand.”

The issue of bringing casinos north will come to a head Nov. 8 when residents will vote on a statewide referendum amending the constitution and ending a monopoly has enjoyed on casino gambling since the 1970s.

A slew of anti-casino expansion advertisements and television spots have littered social and traditional media for weeks now. Detractors of the plan, including Trenton’s Bad Bet, have opined that state legislators have a failing track record when it comes to keeping their promises about other plans to help fix the state’s underfunded pension fund and transportation systems.

Email: daniel.hubbard@patch.com

Related: Anti-Casino Group Says N.J. Politicians Are 'Insane' In New TV Ad (video)

Image via Wikimedia Commons — used with permission under Creative Commons license