Mt Leb maybe not the right choice? (Pittsburgh, Washington: apartment, car registration)

[jhprentiss]

Of course the lower house prices make a difference. Honestly, we were drawn to Pittsburgh in large part by its "lower cost of living". And we actually accepted a lower salary based on that. I've got to say, I haven't seen much of that yet, with a few notable exceptions. The cost of housing is lower (which is balanced by the raise in taxes). And the cost of nursery school is incredibly low, I couldn't believe it! I have a three-year old who goes three mornings a week and it's about $130/month, when in Boston it was close to $500/month.

Other than that, fuel is the same, food is the same (or more expensive). Even board for my horses is the same, which surprised me.

Still waiting for that lower cost of living!

[guylocke]

Don't forget, though, the casino initiative plans to lower property tax in Pennsylvania no later than 2009. This will happen, btw, it's not an opinion. lol.

[Hemingway]

Boylocke...Do you have any idea of what kind of relief the average homeowner would be looking at?

[guylocke]

Boylocke...Do you have any idea of what kind of relief the average homeowner would be looking at?

Here is how the contract works between the state and the gaming control board of Pennsylvania. Mind you, these are actual laws signed by the governor, these aren't empty promises or what-ifs. They are law-abiding contracts.

Anyway, this is how it works.

The casino's make about two million dollars per day (some months have brought in a billion dollars or more).

The state keeps 55 cents of every dollar that the slots make. Of that 55 cents, 34% of that goes into the state fund for property tax relief, or roughly 20 cents per dollar.

Currently, that fund has over 300 million dollars in it (that was several months ago). Once the fund reaches 570 million, by state contract, property relief will be enacted that following school-year term. Many predict it will go into affect as early as next school year, which would be for the 2008-2009 calender year.

I am not positive what the actual relief % is, but will try to do some research on it. It should be fairly considerable as Ed Rendell wants PA property tax to be more comparable with a national level.

If you were wondering what the other percent breakdowns of the revenue is: 12 percent goes to the horse racing industry, 5 percent to tourism and economic development and 4 percent to local and county governments where the licenses were awarded.

Things would be moving a lot faster but several of the casino's are tied up in appeal courts and other red-tape (including the one for Pittsburgh). In the end, there will be up to 14 casino's total in Pennsylvania. I believe only five or six are currently open, and they are all exceeding profit forecasts by a large margin.

[guylocke]

I realize casino's can be good and bad in many ways, but this is pretty incredible. Look at these numbers, they are from ONE week of revenue, last week, in fact, October 1st thru the 7th.

In ONE week:
The state tax relief fund made $8,236,751.60
The PA race horse fund made $2,907,088.77
The economic and tourism fund made $1,211,286.99
The local government share fund made $969,029.59

That is pretty incredible, if you ask me.

I'm not sure when and how all that is being distributed, but I do know that tourism in Pennsylvania is WAY up. We are now the fourth highest visited state in the country fueled by large growth in the Pennsylvania Wilds (27 state parks in north central PA), Philadelphia, the Great Lakes region, and Pittsburgh.

I'd like to know one thing, though. If 12% of the state's share of the casino revenue goes to the horse race industry, where does the money go that horse race industry makes???

[Ken_B.]

I hope Rendell's deals stick. I like him, always have - he did a lot of good in Philly when he was there (since deteriorated due to his absence as Mayor).

I can still recall back in the 80's how the casinos promised to rejuvinate Atlantic City. That got them in the door and now AC is still a dump, even worse actually, just steps from the casino area.

[guylocke]

he did a lot of good in Philly when he was there

He sure did.

(since deteriorated due to his absence as Mayor)

Really?? That's such ashame. I had thought I heard how much cleaner and safer Philly still was. No?

I hope Rendell's deals stick. I like him, always have

He has some really interesting and innovative ideas, I don't mind him either. He's screwed up on a few occasions, lol, that's for sure, and he definitely is bias towards Philly over Pittsburgh. When he first got to office, he gave Pittsburgh the cold shoulder. However, I think he's realized his mistake as Pittsburgh is leading in some of the world's most advanced and profitable technologies. He has since been giving Pittsburgh a lot more money and fought hard to keep the Penguins in the city (even though it was him that originally screwed Mario over!!). Also, any initiate he has for Philly he almost always has something similar, albeit not on as grand a scale, in Pittsburgh. I'm okay with that, after all, Pittsburgh is no where near the scale of Philly.

He's learnt his lesson, I hope.

[Hemingway]

Originally Posted by Ken_B.

I hope Rendell's deals stick. I like him, always have - he did a lot of good in Philly when he was there (since deteriorated due to his absence as Mayor).

I can still recall back in the 80's how the casinos promised to rejuvinate Atlantic City. That got them in the door and now AC is still a dump, even worse actually, just steps from the casino area.

I grew up in NJ in that era. I remember my parents being SO skeptical of the promises that were made to the senior citizens of NJ, and the local people of AC...turns out they were right. So, I guess I have a natural skepticism of ever seeing a dime of the money from the Casinos. Time will tell!

[right-here-i-say]

If he gave 100% back to property taxes I think it would be better. I also think it would have been better if the Penguins got a free arena instead of the gambling funding it.

[guylocke]

If he gave 100% back to property taxes I think it would be better.

One step at a time, now. LOL

I also think it would have been better if the Penguins got a free arena instead of the gambling funding it.

Yeah, no kidding.