Facing a huge deficit, Pennsylvania eyes gambling for help

Pennsylvania’s government has been in a partial shutdown for more than 100 days as the Republican-controlled Legislature resists Wolf’s request for a multibillion-dollar tax increase that Wolf says is necessary to resolve the deficit and help correct steep disparities in public school funding.

“We need to get a budget done”.

“That’s what we need so we’re not faced in 2016-17 with a multi-billion dollar structural budget deficit”. But he said he believes Republicans know they have to fix the deficit and he will insist on it. Lawmakers on the democratic side have not yet revealed their support or opposition.

“Now that nearly everyone has agreed that we’re not going to have an across-the-board tax increase”, Corman said Tuesday, in a reference to the House vote, “we’re a lot closer together than we were”.

Among the streams that at least a few – if not all – members of both parties are open to discussion on include: reforms to the state’s monopoly on liquor sales; further expansion of legalized gambling; the much-discussed tax on gas production from the Marcellus Shale; higher taxes on cigarettes; and a change in the state’s bank shares tax.

But this is a “solution” that could invite more problems.

Practically nothing has materialized.

State lawmakers, after being on the fence for a long time, are meeting next week to possibly consider legalizing Internet gambling, the Tribune-Review reported.

Unlike revenue from certain taxes, the amount derived from gambling is sensitive to the economy and a game’s popularity.

A $2.4 billion tax package was presented to Governor Tom Wolf but was shut down by the House and now Dave Reed, the House Majority Leader, has placed an expansion into gambling as a top priority, a possibility that he feels should be considered first before taxes are raised.

Online games will be opened to players physically in Pennsylvania, with the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board overseeing the new gambling operations, Kotik noted.

A bill by Sen.

Online gambling is being considered in the state, with Senator Kim Ward introducing a bill that would allow the casinos in the state to provide iGambling for a permit fee of $10 million and only to those who are located in the state. New Jersey’s tax rate is 15 percent. There’s also allowing casinos to station slot machines at off-track horse-racing betting parlors and Pennsylvania’s six worldwide airports.

Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, said gambling bills may not have seemed like a great idea months ago.