Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Corporate welfare for the Woodlands

The split of the revenue from slot machines at Mohegan Sun is 55% to the state and 45% to the casino. Much less goes to the state from table games. Only 34% is earmarked for school property tax relief which is the reason this was sold to us. Wilkes-Barre Area taxpayers have seen a reduction of about $200 a year since this started. The host communities get a cut off the top to pay for increased police costs, etc but there are 2 other pools of money. 12% is dedicated to the dying horse racing industry and there is pot of gold that local governments can apply for.

In past years the Plains Township Commissioners have applied to kick back $3 million to Mohegan to clean up the East Side Landfill so they could pave the parking lot and The Commonwealth Financing Authority approved it.

Now the board of Bridgette Murray O'Connor, Ciro Cinti, Ron Fillipini, Joe Yozwiak and Robert Sax   has  unanimously approved an application by The Woodlands to grab a piece of the pie. According to this story in the TL by Andrew Seder the Woodlands management will be  knocking down cottages on the Woodlands property just north of the hotel and conference center’s building along Route 315.
In their place would be built a multilevel building with commercial/office space on the lower floors and apartments on the upper floors. 

It's a $40 million project that not been even put on the drawing board yet let alone submitted for zoning or other approval. The Kornfelds did not return  phone calls from Andrew or me. (Disclaimer: I once worked for the Kornfelds).

I have a novel idea. If the Kornfleds want to expand/upgrade their business they should go to a bank and apply for a loan.

In 2013 there will be 2 spots up on the board of the Plains Commissioners. The incumbents are Robert Sax and Jerry Woziak. 

I still remember when it was the Treadway Inn




 

3 comments:

Donald John Williams said...

Go get 'em, Gort

Anonymous said...

So the management of the Woodlands APPLIED for the money and it was approved and they are the bad ones. It is smart business to take money that doesn't require to be repaid, than to get a loan and not only repay principle but interest.

During construction it will mean jobs and patronage of local businesses.

If the offices and apartments are filled it will bring in revenue, not only in taxes, but also to local businesses, so why is this a bad investment?

Anonymous said...

In the Begining.....The citizens of Luzerne were supposed to get proceeds from the casino to apply towards property taxes. No money from the casins should go to one business ...how about all the other businesses in the area. Wait...union labor may be involved....give them the money...end of story.