Officials, casino operators butt heads over waterfront plans

HARRISBURG - Several days after State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo (D., Phila.) threatened to kill tax breaks for Philadelphia casinos if they don't relocate from the waterfront, this much is clear: The casinos intend to stay. Gov. Rendell says that he won't twist arms to make them move and that the legislature has no legal grounds to force them out.

What remained unclear was who, if anyone, would lead the campaign in the Capitol to yank the casinos' tax abatement in Fumo's absence this fall.

Fumo, along with Rep. Dwight Evans (D., Phila.), called a news conference late Thursday night to decry the waterfront sites as "untenable and contrary to the public interest."

The two lawmakers announced plans to seek legislation to punish the Foxwoods and SugarHouse casinos if they didn't find sites other than the ones planned along the Delaware River. Since then, Evans has downplayed the threat of legislative combat.

Meanwhile, Rendell last week offered to convene a meeting with casino operators, Philadelphia legislators and Mayor Nutter within the next two to three weeks, but said that the casinos had won the right to develop those sites legally and that they could not be forced to relocate.

Rendell said through a spokesman that he would be primarily a facilitator in any negotiations but would try to explain "why moving might be in the casinos' best interest."

"His primary interest is in seeing facilities operating as quickly as possible so they can contribute to tax reduction," said Rendell's spokesman, Chuck Ardo. "Any decisions the operators make [about relocating] would have to be voluntary."

Fumo's proclamation last week about launching the legislative equivalent of "atomic weapons" at the casinos if they didn't comply might have been his final act after almost three decades in the Capitol. On Friday he announced that, with his federal corruption trial scheduled this fall, he likely would not return to Harrisburg before his retirement this year.

While Evans stood with Fumo at the Thursday night news conference, it was unclear who would be carrying the ball for the senator this fall should there be no agreement with the casino operators this summer.

Evans, through a spokeswoman yesterday, said any legislation regarding the casinos' 10-year tax-abatement status was "six steps away."

"Is he prepared to draft legislation? Not at this point," said his spokeswoman, Johnna Pro. "He'd like to try to work out some solution beneficial to everyone."

Pro said Evans, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, "jumped into the fray" last week in order to try to get the casino issue resolved and to break a logjam created by Fumo, who had been holding up important economic-development legislation over the issue.

Pro said the casino controversy had led to the obstruction of other legislation affecting areas beyond Philadelphia as well. Rep. Michael O'Brien (D., Phila.) and other Philadelphia lawmakers who want the casinos moved have slowed down the movement of other bills by attaching casino-related amendments to them.

Meanwhile, casino operators said they would be happy to meet with Rendell and other officials but were steadfast in their intention to build on the waterfront sites they were given licenses for in 2006.

"While Foxwoods Casino Philadelphia remains committed to the site that was approved by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board and upheld by the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court, we would welcome a meeting to discuss and resolve this issue so that we can move forward in bringing jobs and tax revenues to the residents of Pennsylvania," Foxwoods spokeswoman Maureen Garrity said in a statement released yesterday.

A SugarHouse spokeswoman said last week that re-siting was "not an option."

Greg Carlin, chief executive officer of SugarHouse Gaming, said yesterday: "We welcome the opportunity to meet with any elected official to discuss the merits of our project."

A spokesman for the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board called the board's decisions regarding the Philadelphia sites "correct."

"We do not have a position on re-siting of these facilities," said Doug Harbach, the board's director of communications.

Rendell has tried to appease casino opponents before. Last July, Rendell promised opponents he would approach the operators about finding alternate sites. He sent the casinos a lukewarm letter with possible locations offered by City Councilman Frank DiCicco. The casinos said no thanks, and the governor said the issue was settled.

But just having the four major political players huddling on the issue could bring results, said Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R., Delaware).

"It's a good sign when the governor and the mayor and Rep. Evans and Sen. Fumo engage in a conversation to try and advance the issue," Pileggi said. "I don't know that they've had that kind of joint effort before last week."

Pileggi has an interest in the outcome. Fumo and O'Brien have proposed moving the casinos to near Philadelphia International Airport, which would probably have less opposition from neighbors. But such a move would violate the 10-mile zone drawn around Harrah's Chester Casino & Racetrack, designed to prevent competition. "I would strongly oppose any change in the legislation that set out a certain minimum distance between licensed facilities," said Pileggi, in whose district the Chester facility sits. "The applicants applied for a license based on a certain set of rules, and you don't change the rules in the middle of the game."

The other areas mentioned over the last year include industrial parcels at the foot of the Betsy Ross Bridge and the old Budd plant site that Donald Trump sought for a casino in Nicetown/East Falls - but those would likely bring community opposition.

Nutter said he asked PennPraxis, the University of Pennsylvania's design clinic that produced the city's new plan for the waterfront, to identify potential sites.

Nutter has embraced the PennPraxis plan that calls for extending the city's grid of streets to the waterfront, and said the casinos' big-box designs - particularly Foxwoods' - were "absurd" for those locations. "Why we would put something like that on our waterfront is beyond me," Nutter said. He suggested that casino operators show "an appropriate level of flexibility."

"I don't think the 'We don't wanna do it' answer is going to work," Nutter said.

Sen. Vincent Hughes (D. Phila.), who has not taken a position on the casinos' location, said anti-casino legislation would be counterproductive, with thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in tax relief at stake.

"We have to move this forward," Hughes said. "Everybody's losing, and the longer it takes to get on line, the more losses there will be."