The state Gaming Commission is advancing an idea to refund casinos their hefty $85 million licensing fee if a well-funded push to overturn the Bay State's gaming law is successful, which would put a serious crimp in the state budget that relies on those fees to fund transportation and other projects.
A commission rep has been asked to testify about the issue at an upcoming hearing of the Joint Committee on Economic Development, which is studying the ramifications of the effort to put a casino repeal question on the November ballot. License applicants are concerned they will pay the license fee — $85 million for a resort casino, $25 million for a slots parlor — and have nothing to show for it if gaming is outlawed.
"That's not fair," Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby said. "We hear that, and one reasonable fix would be for the Legislature to do whatever it would have to do to make that money refundable in the unlikely event that that all happened."
Crosby said any legislative fix should be in place before Feb. 28, when the commission will award the state's first and only slots parlor license. The chairmen of the joint economic development committee, Sen. Gale Candaras of Wilbraham and Rep. Joseph Wagner of Chicopee, did not return calls for comment.
This year's state budget originally counted on $195 million in licensing revenue from two casinos and one slots parlor, but that was recently adjusted to $110 million out of concern one of the casinos would be licensed too close to the end of the fiscal year.
"The budget is built on a number of assumptions that we closely monitor throughout the year, and this is one," said Alex Zaroulis, spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Administration and Finance.
Gov. Deval Patrick's budget for next year anticipates $53 million in gaming license revenue and $20 million in taxes on revenue a new gaming facility will generate. Patrick's office declined to comment on whether he'd support refunding the money if the casino law is overturned.
The group working to strike down the casino law, Repeal the Casino Deal, raised $175,476 last year, and is petitioning the Supreme Judicial Court to get on the November ballot over the objection of Attorney General Martha Coakley, who argues the question would violate the implied contractual rights of license applicants. A coalition of casino and slots proponents have hired a lawyer, Carl Valvo, and filed a motion to intervene in the case. The court will hear arguments in May.
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