SEARCH NEWS:

 

Casinos Consider Atlantic City Audit

"The Casino Association of New Jersey considered the matter at its Monday meeting but made no decision. The group, which represents the 12 casinos, meets again Oct. 7.

"`You have a budget that is running out of control,' said Wallace Barr, chief operating officer of Park Place Entertainment. `If nothing else, the city is going to have to come to grips with its budgets and services. It can't continue to charge the citizens with more taxes.'

"…Mayor Lorenzo Langford is willing to hear the casinos' concerns, a city official said.

"`I'm sure the mayor would like the opportunity to sit down with the casinos and review what type of evaluation they are talking about,' Business Administrator Benjamin Fitzgerald said.

"…The casinos have gone this route before. Upset with an `obese' city budget, the casino association in 1986 helped fund a $280,000 Touche Ross & Co. audit of the city's operations. The firm found that the city wasted between $6 million and $9 million through mismanagement, poor organization and high salaries.

"City officials largely ignored the firm's recommendations.

"The casinos have paid 80 percent of the combined city, county and school taxes for the last five years. Last year, the casinos' tax bill was $163.8 million on their assessed value of $5.3 billion.

"In May, City Council hiked the tax rate by 25 cents per $100 of assessed value, resulting in a 9.4 percent increase in the combined local property taxes.

"… The hike might seem like peanuts in an industry that last year generated gross operating profits of $1.1 billion, but executives say it hurts. It's especially painful coming on top of the new state corporate tax, which will cost casinos between $17 million and $20 million this year…"

< Gaming News