Rendell calls Monday meeting on table-games tax

Gov. Rendell is calling on both parties' leaders in the state legislature to meet with him Monday and resolve the lingering dispute over a table-games tax to free up money for state-supported colleges, hospitals, and museums.

Four of the 14 state-related universities - Temple, Pennsylvania State, Pittsburgh, and Lincoln - are due to get more than $600 million from the state this fiscal year. But that funding is linked to the table-games legislation needing final approval in Harrisburg.

Legislators have not reached an agreement on how much to tax the new games, or on the license fee for casinos to add poker, blackjack, and other newly legalized games.

Among those expected to attend Monday's meeting are House Speaker Keith McCall (D., Carbon), House Majority Leader Todd A. Eachus (D., Luzerne), Senate Majority Leader Domenic Pileggi (R., Delaware), and Senate Minority Leader Robert J. Mellow (D., Lackawanna), along with State Rep. Dwight Evans (D., Phila.), the appropriations chairman.

Gary Tuma, spokesman for Rendell, said the objective would be "to get an agreement on the precise details on the table-games legislation, which will get money flowing."

Tuma said Rendell originally called the meeting among the legislative leaders for yesterday but some could not attend.

The House recessed this week and is not scheduled to return until Nov. 9. But Tuma said members were on six-hour call, and that if an agreement on table games was achieved Monday, they could return relatively quickly.

The table-games measure is the last unresolved element of the $27.8 billion budget plan that Rendell signed Oct. 9 after a 101-day impasse. Revenue from the games is projected to reach $200 million this fiscal year.

"If table-games legislation is approved . . . then we would expect the House to approve the nonpreferred bills and get them to the governor, and he would sign them," Tuma said yesterday.

"Nonpreferred" is the state-government term for aid to state-related colleges as well as museums and hospitals.

Rendell "wants it done," Tuma said. "He wants a completion of the budget deal, and it includes revenue from table games. He wants the entire budget agreement implemented."

In all, 28 institutions fall into that "nonpreferred" category. They range from Penn State and Temple to the Franklin Institute, the Academy of Natural Sciences, and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Their state aid this fiscal year adds up to about $730 million.

The delay in the nonpreferred funding spurred Pileggi and Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R., Jefferson) to write McCall a letter on Wednesday seeking a quick resolution on table games.

Penn State is due about $360 million, or $30 million a month from the state. It has had to dig deeper into cash reserves and has taken a hit on investment earnings as a result, officials said Wednesday.

The delay over $14 million in state funding, or 22 percent of Lincoln's annual budget, "has been a significant hit," said Michael Hill, vice president of development and external relations at the school in Chester County, which has 2,500 students.

Hill said yesterday that the school had cut back on travel, left administrative positions unfilled, and dipped into its cash reserves, and was extending its line of credit.

"It's wonderful news that they are continuing the negotiations, and we're hopeful and trustful that they'll come to a resolution," he said.

Key to reaching that resolution is for the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democratic-led House to agree on a table-games tax rate.

The Senate passed a bill Oct. 9 that would tax the games at 12 percent, plus an additional 2 percent for local municipalities, and that would charge each casino a $15 million license fee; smaller "resort casinos" would pay half that.

Pileggi said earlier in the week that he thought Senate Republicans could agree to a 15 percent tax rate. A Democrat-backed House bill calls for 34 percent, but Democrats have signaled they would settle for the high teens.

"We hope this [meeting] will help restart negotiations and put us on track to finally resolving these last pieces of the budget," Brett Marcy, spokesman for Eachus, said yesterday.

McCall was also ready to get table-games negotiations moving again.

"But he also believes that this legislation has to be done right, not just done fast," said his spokesman, Bob Caton. "His top priority is to make sure the taxpayers get the most benefits possible from this expansion."