PA Voters Say Yes to Slots Revenue

Written by John G | Wednesday, November 5th, 2008

Eastern Lancaster County School District voters opted in on Tuesday to join 500 other districts across the state to accept real estate tax relief money generated by slot machine gambling because of the “social ills associated with slot-machine operations.” In May, the school board rejected the potential $441,818 in slot revenues designated for the district. Voters however, sent a clear message to the school board by showing up in large numbers, 70 percent of whom voted in favor of the referendum.

Tim Shay, a spokesman for an advocacy group called Tax Alliance said, “The people have spoken but it wasn’t easy. There were a lot of people who worked real hard on a grassroots level, including Democrats, Republicans and Independents.”

The Pennsylvania state Legislature legalized slots gambling to fund school property tax relief in 2004. The first allocation of money to districts totalled an amazing $613 million statewide this school year. However, Elanco School Board was the only district to turn down the money in a 5-3 vote on May 29th. Due to the school board’s decision, homeowners would have received a $66.53 reduction on their tax bills for 2008-09 but instead, the average homeowner’s bill went up $69.

With the overwhelming response from voters in favor of this referendum, its clear that people feel that slots revenue is a win-win proposition.

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