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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2011 > March > 26 > Entry
Editorial: Casinos not place to spend Ohio’s money
Gov. John Kasich drew a line in the sand this week about the kinds of businesses Ohio is going to assist even if they’re helping to clean up the environment.
He yanked cleanup dollars set aside for a casino in Columbus, a decision that has implications for an iffy casino project in Dayton.
Penn National Gaming has been building a casino near I-270 and West Broad Street outside Columbus on an old Delphi auto-parts plant. Penn wanted $2.5 million toward its $18.5 million cleanup from Clean Ohio funds. But the governor got an amendment put into the state transportation budget that nixes that.
“The administration believes that the casinos do not need any additional development incentives in order to build these facilities,” Rob Nichols, the governor’s spokesman, told The Columbus Dispatch.
That’s an understatement.
In February, Penn came to Dayton and said it would like to move its Beulah Park racetrack from outside of Columbus to Dayton — if (and only if) Gov. Kasich allows video lottery terminals to be installed at Ohio’s seven tracks. It proposed a $200 million racino for the old Delphi plant at Wagner Ford and Needmore roads.
(That estimate also would have to cover the cost of its VLT license, the price for which hasn’t been set. Gov. Ted Strickland wanted $65 million.)
Penn is dangling the idea of coming to Dayton because it doesn’t want Beulah to compete with its new casino in Columbus. Moving even just 70 miles expands the company’s reach and reduces poaching of itself.
At the time, Bob Tenenbaum, a spokesman for Penn, said the company “will not ask for any local or county tax or infrastructure funds except Clean Ohio funds” to advance the Dayton project.
Montgomery County commissioners and Dayton city commissioners are supportive of the racino, partly because the Delphi site will be a tough one to turn around.
The cleanup will be expensive, and the property is near the region’s wellfields. Industrial companies can’t locate there because they wouldn’t be able to meet the rules on limiting the use and storage of toxic chemicals.
Those difficulties are real, but it’s nutty to be using public money to help an enterprise that can afford to pay its own way and that creates new problems for the community.
People are always going to gamble, but the more accessible it is, the more tempted they’ll be to indulge.
For some people, indulging and addiction aren’t that far apart, and even people who aren’t problem gamblers can spend money they don’t have if the opportunity is in their back yard.
Mr. Tenenbaum said he has no concern that the governor’s decision to deny funding to casinos “could screw up” the Dayton project — if all the stars align and allow it to go forward.
(Besides the governor having to come down on the side of allowing VLTs, Lebanon Raceway is expected to object to moving Beulah closer to its track.)
At least there’s one thing decided. Taxpayers aren’t going to pay so other people can gamble.
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