HARRISBURG - Greetings from the state Capitol, where we’re awaiting a briefing by the Secretary of the Budget on, well, the budget. Today Gov. Ed Rendell unveils his proposed 2009-10 fiscal year spending plan, and all the media buzz this morning is focused on his plan to put video poker in your local corner bar.
The General Assembly would have to approve such a measure - and I have my doubts about the Senate Republican majority. Rendell, a Philadelphia Democrat, wants to use revenue from the video poker machines to help families who make less than $100,000 receive $7,600 in aid for tuition, books, fees and room and board. The caveat is the student must attend one of the 14 state-supported universities (and being an Elizabethtown grad, I would have been ineligible).
To raise the money, the state would levy fees against the bar and the manufacturers of the machines as well as a 50 percent tax on the net profits of video poker. Yikes! Each bar and social club would be able to install up to five machines per establishment.
Republican reaction, according to R.B. Swift, an excellent and venerable reporter from the Scranton Times Tribune:
While Republican senators favor expanding tuition aid, they are leery of underwriting it with video-poker revenue.
“Serious concerns will be raised about licensing, regulation and enforcement — the same kind of concerns that have been raised about the oversight of casinos in Pennsylvania,” said Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-9.
Rendell has an uphill fight, but right now, according to Swift’s article, there are some 17,000 video poker machines already in use illegally, and the state is deriving zero benefit.
More to come later today. Word is the budget is roughly the size of last year’s $28 billion spending plan.
