have Nancy Fowler's attention.
With a potential influx of new video-slot machines at Lincoln Greyhound Park looming, Lincoln town officials are renewing their cry for a bigger share of the pot.
The town, by state law, receives 1 percent of the net gain from 1,700 video-lottery terminals at Lincoln Park. The park’s owners have asked the state permission to add 1,300 more machines and said they will move forward with a $30 million expansion of the facility if the state’s Lottery Commission approves the request later this month.
The town’s 1 percent piece of the video-slot pie – totaling $1.8 million during fiscal 2001 – accounts for nearly 5 percent of its $37.8 million budget. The town also reaps about $425,000 in property taxes from Lincoln Park.
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But Jonathan F. Oster, Lincoln’s town administrator, said the money is just enough to offset the costs associated with providing services such as public safety and road maintenance for the thousands of park visitors who each day stream into the town of 21,000 people. While the park’s proposed expansion would put more money into town coffers, Oster says it also would bring more traffic, more accidents, more emergencies – and more costs.
"The town of Lincoln is the host community for this huge facility, and we suffer all the burdens associated with it," said Oster, who, during a four-year stint as a state senator, sponsored legislation several times to increase the town’s percentage of revenues from the video-slot machines. "I don’t think we’re being fairly compensated."
Oster added that Lincoln Park doesn’t provide much in the way of economic benefits to the town, other than the additional revenue. Visitors typically exit from Route 146 and go directly to the park, rarely stopping to shop or dine at local businesses, he said. It does, however, employ about 100 town residents, accounting for roughly $1 million of the facility’s $14 million payroll, according to Lincoln Park CEO Dan Bucci.
Legislation has been floated in the General Assembly each of the past five years to increase the town’s share from 1 to 2 percent. Although the measure passed the Senate one year ago, it has never made it out of the House Finance Committee, according to Rep. Rene R. Menard, a Lincoln Democrat. Menard said he would support similar legislation again this year.
"I think it’s an ideal time to talk about this issue because of the proposed increase in the use of the facility," Oster said. "It will increase the wear and tear on this town, and I think an increase in the compensation to the host community should go hand-in-hand with that."
But the town of Lincoln isn’t the only one clamoring for a larger share of video-slot revenue.
Gov. Lincoln Almond last month proposed boosting the state’s share of revenue from Lincoln Park’s video-slot machines from 51 percent to 60 percent to help bridge an estimated $70 million budget shortfall. Almond’s plan would take away the six percent slice that now goes to the park’s kennel owners – likely signaling an end to greyhound racing in the state – and trim 3 percent from Lincoln Park’s current share, which is now 31 percent of revenue. The state also would up its share of revenues from Newport Jai Alai’s video-slot machines to 60 percent.
Almond press secretary Lisa Pelosi said the 1 percent share received by Lincoln and Newport wouldn’t change under the governor’s plan.
"If anything, it could have gone the other way," Pelosi said. "There was some consideration that we would take more from (the towns), which we’re not."
Menard acknowledged that it would be an uphill battle for the town to win a bigger cut of the video-slot revenue, given the state’s budget woes.
"I’ll fight tooth and nail for the extra one percent, but I hope there are no false hopes out there that we’ll be successful," said Menard, who plans to co-sponsor legislation with Rep. John D. Barr, also a Lincoln Democrat.
Menard said he thinks Lincoln town officials are eyeing the potential revenue source to help pay for a $35 million school-improvement bond issue should voters approve the measure in April. "I don’t want the legislature to be blamed for the lack of funding if the town chooses to move forward with this bond issue," he said.
Oster said that while the town "needs additional assistance" paying for school improvements, he said any added revenue from video-slot machines would not be earmarked specifically for the bond issue. Instead, it would go into the general fund to help pay for a variety of things, including public safety, road maintenance, schools and senior programs.
As for Lincoln Park, Bucci said he doesn’t have a problem with the town getting two percent – as long as it comes out of the state’s share.
"We suggest the state kick back one of its points so the host community gets two percent," Bucci said, adding that he thinks the state’s 51 percent take already is too much when compared to other states with legalized gambling.
Casinos in Las Vegas pay just 5 percent of revenues to the state of Nevada, Bucci said, while New Jersey gets a 7-percent cut from casinos in Atlantic City. The state of Connecticut gets 25 percent of the net gains at Foxwoods Casino, according to the state’s Gambling Regulation Unit.
The state of Rhode Island’s revenue from video-slot machines has grown from $13.1 million in 1994 to $121.7 million in 2001.
