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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2015 - 2016
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | January 27, 2015 02:58 PM |
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| From: | Representative Rosita C. Youngblood |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Requiring Philadelphia's Local Share Assessment from licensed gaming to fund education (former HB 1798) |
| In the near future, I plan to re-introduce legislation (former HB 1798) that would provide additional funding to the Philadelphia School District by better utilizing local casino revenues. Specifically, the legislation would amend the section of the state's Gaming Act that deals with the local share assessment for Philadelphia's casinos. The bill would require all revenues collected under this local assessment to be allocated to the Philadelphia School District. Under current law, Philadelphia's casinos are required to pay a 4 percent local assessment to the city. Right now, only the first $5 million of this local share assessment is allocated to the school district, with the remaining money going to the city's General Fund. In total, Philadelphia has received more than $37 million since gaming began in Philadelphia. It is estimated Philadelphia will receive almost $10 million from the gaming local share assessment this year, and with a second Philadelphia license finally awarded last year, it is estimated the city could see an additional $10 million a year from this revenue moving forward. My proposal would simply require that all revenues generated under Philadelphia's local share assessment go to our financially strapped school district. This would be a dedicated funding stream that could help our schools and boost the education of our children to the tune of $20 million per year. It is important to note that this proposal would change the local share assessment allocation for Philadelphia only, and would not impact the allocation of funding for any other city or county local share assessment, or the state revenues collected for property and wage tax relief. Previous sponsors include: CRUZ, O'BRIEN, V. BROWN, BROWNLEE, COHEN, WATSON, CALTAGIRONE, KINSEY, THOMAS, HARPER, W. KELLER, McGEEHAN AND PASHINSKI If you have any questions or concerns, please contact my Harrisburg office at 717-772-9920. I hope you will join me in cosponsoring this legislation. Thank you in advance for your consideration. |
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| View Attachment | ||
Introduced as HB644