Senate 2012 budget hearings got under way in earnest Friday in Frederiksted as Casino Control Commission Chairwoman Gizette Thomas presented the commission’s 2012 budget request of $994,000 to the Finance Committee—an amount almost unchanged from last year.
“This sum would be used exclusively to fund salaries and fringe benefits for the personnel of the commission," Thomas said of the budget request. The remaining $438,000 of its operating budget will come from the Casino Revolving Fund and from the Casino Revenue Fund, she said.
The actual amount will be considerably less, because the budget request predates the Senate’s recent fiscal stabilization act and its across the board salary cuts, Committee Chairman Carlton "Ital" Dowe said after the hearing. The salary cut alone will reduce that by somewhere in the neighborhood of $200,000, said Dowe. Combined with other cuts the final total "will be at least $300,000 less" than the submitted budget.
The commission has regulatory oversight over casino gambling in the territory, issuing licenses, settling disputes and enforcing regulations. In fiscal year 2010, the commission collected $139,000 in the Casino Revolving Fund from fees, fines and penalties, Thomas said. That marks a second year of declining revenues, from $159,000 in fiscal year 2009 and $173,000 in 2008. So far this fiscal year, the commission has collected $29,000, about $4,000 less than at the same point last year. Money in the revolving fund goes to the Finance Department, which then gives $100,000 back to the commission for operating expenses, she said.
The larger pool of money is the Casino Revenue Fund, replenished with gross revenue taxes on the territory’s one casino at St. Croix’s Divi Carina Bay Resort and Casino. The Casino Revenue Fund collected $2.5 million in fiscal 2010, and as of March, had collected $1.4 million this fiscal year, a five percent decline from what was collected by April last year, she said. By law, the commission gets 10 percent of the Casino Revenue Fund for its operating expenses with the rest divided among an array of programs according to a statutory formula. The largest share, 18 percent, goes to the Education Department, which received $458,000 last year.
Local declines in casino revenue are a little off from the national trend, Thomas said. "The gaming industry in North America shows some rebound in revenue and taxes overall in 2010," Thomas said. But the nationwide increase was only about one percent and some states saw declines while others saw increases, she said.
Sen. Usie Richards asked about the status of a casino license for slots at Randall "Doc" James Racetrack. In 2010, the Legislature passed a "racino" act, allowing slots at horse tracks in an effort to boost the local horse racing industry. After allowing for two days last week under a supplement to Divi Carina Bay Casino’s license, the V.I. Casino Control Commission temporarily pulled the license and to date no new one has been issued.
"Is the commission interpreting the law such that if a casino has a license and wants to operate a racino they require an additional license?" Richards asked. That was not her interpretation, but the other commissioner is of that view, Thomas said. But the difficulty really boiled down to a quorum issue, she said.
While set up by statute to have five members, at present, the commission only has two: Thomas and 5th Constitutional Convention Delegate Anne Golden. Unlike many of the territory’s commissions, which are volunteer positions, the Casino Control Commissioners are paid salaries of $100,000 to $105,000.
The absence of a quorum will be resolved shortly, as two more commissioners recently confirmed by the Legislature; Roderick Moorehead and Henry Richardson join the staff, she said.
Richards also asked if any permit requests were pending at present. There is the pending racino application and Golden Gaming has a reservation on a license for his planned resort at St. Croix’s Great Pond that is up for renewal at the end of the year, Thomas said. The prospects for Golden’s renewal look slim, according to Thomas.
"He needs to show funding, financing,” said Thomas. And that has not yet happened in the monthly filings Golden is required to make to the commission, she said.
No votes were taken at the information gathering hearing. Present were Dowe, Sens. Janette Millin-Young, Sammuel Sanes, Patrick Sprauve and non-committee member Richards. Absent were Sens. Patrick Hill, Shawn-Michael Malone, Nereida "Nellie" Rivera-O’Reilly and Celestino White.
