Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett suggested reviving a bid for a twice-passed over Cedar Rapids casino with the promise the city would devote 100 percent of its share of revenue to a delayed flood protection system, once an informal moratorium on new casinos expires in summer 2017.
Corbett said a reconstructed application could garner more support from the five-member Racing and Gaming Commission that voted 4-1 to reject a casino license for Cedar Crossings in April 2014.
“Dedicating 100 percent of revenue the city gets to flood protection could persuade enough of the Racing and Gaming Commissioners to give us a license,” Corbett said in a conversation with The Gazette.
Corbett has worked to keep alive the prospect of an urban casino on the west bank of the Cedar River. Cedar Crossings had been estimated as a $164 million project with $80 million in annual revenue.
The push last year to allow the casino as Iowa’s first non-smoking casino never gained traction in the Iowa Legislature. But next summer could be an opportunity to make another run, Corbett said.
Some suspect this latest pitch stands little chance of success, though.
“I don’t think mixing two different issues is the answer,” said Brent Oleson, a member of the Linn County Board of Supervisors and a member of the not-for-profit Linn County Gaming Association which applied for the license on behalf of an investment group
“You’d have to change the makeup of the Racing and Gaming Commission,” he said. “It was never about where the money was going to go. I think if these people want flood protection, they’d have better luck flying to Washington, D.C., than driving to Des Moines” to petition the commission.
In voting down Cedar Crossings in April 2014, commissioners said studies showed the market was oversaturated, and it would cannibalize customers from other casinos, including Riverside Casino and Golf Resort. In June, the commission OK’d a license for the Wild Rose Casino in Jefferson, but weeks later, commissioners informally agreed to a three-year moratorium for granting new casino licenses.
Meanwhile, the casino industry in Eastern Iowa has expanded since then with the backing of the commission, which approved the relocation the Isle Casino in Bettendorf and Rhythm City in Davenport from riverboat to larger land-based complexes.
Iowa has 19 state-licensed casinos for a population of 3 million people.
The make up of the gaming commission remains the same as the one that rejected the license request in 2014. Gov. Terry Branstad reappointed commission member Richard Arnold, of Russell, last week
Terms for two other members, Chairman Jeff Lamberti of Ankeny and Carl Heinrich of Council Bluffs, expire in April 2017. They both voted against the license.
The $313.9 million in gambling revenue in Iowa collected in fiscal 2015 was an increase of $5.3 million, or 1.7 percent, compared with 2014, according to commission reports. However, it was down 1.2 percent, or $3.9 million, from $317.8 million in fiscal 2013.
Lamberti said on Friday new applications can be made at any time and would be reviewed. But unless something significant has changed in the application or the market, he said, the outcome is unlikely to be different.
“It’s pretty safe to say if they resubmit the same proposal as before, it’s hard to believe the economic condition has changed in such a little amount of time,” Lamberti said.
When asked whether devoting revenue to flood protection amounted to a change, Lamberti said applications are looked at in their totality, so how proceeds are used would be a new consideration. Whether it is a significant enough change to sway commission members would be hard to say without seeing an application, he said.
The latest pitch for a Cedar Rapids casino is focused on overcoming delays in federal aid. Corbett has said federal aid, which was authorized at $73 million in 2014 for a system of levees, flood walls and pumps, is at risk because the Cedar Rapids project’s standing is slipping in the federal cost-benefit ratio. Corbett said the city isn’t giving up on the federal money, which hasn’t come, but he is looking at ways to deal with the delay.
The money was authorized by Congress but was never funded in the budget prepared by the Office of Management and Budget, which produces the president’s budget.
Meanwhile, Cedar Rapids has yet to construct a meaningful flood protection system, eight years after the flood of 2008 wreaked havoc on residential, commercial and industrial areas. Revenue from a casino would help, Corbett said.
The original casino plan had earmarked 1.5 percent of annual revenue to the city and Linn County, Corbett noted. Cedar Rapids could leverage the money to make up for the delay in federal aid, which is planned as a funding match for state and local dollars.
http://www.thegazette.com/subject/n...or-casino-could-aid-flood-protection-20160308
Corbett said a reconstructed application could garner more support from the five-member Racing and Gaming Commission that voted 4-1 to reject a casino license for Cedar Crossings in April 2014.
“Dedicating 100 percent of revenue the city gets to flood protection could persuade enough of the Racing and Gaming Commissioners to give us a license,” Corbett said in a conversation with The Gazette.
Corbett has worked to keep alive the prospect of an urban casino on the west bank of the Cedar River. Cedar Crossings had been estimated as a $164 million project with $80 million in annual revenue.
The push last year to allow the casino as Iowa’s first non-smoking casino never gained traction in the Iowa Legislature. But next summer could be an opportunity to make another run, Corbett said.
Some suspect this latest pitch stands little chance of success, though.
“I don’t think mixing two different issues is the answer,” said Brent Oleson, a member of the Linn County Board of Supervisors and a member of the not-for-profit Linn County Gaming Association which applied for the license on behalf of an investment group
“You’d have to change the makeup of the Racing and Gaming Commission,” he said. “It was never about where the money was going to go. I think if these people want flood protection, they’d have better luck flying to Washington, D.C., than driving to Des Moines” to petition the commission.
In voting down Cedar Crossings in April 2014, commissioners said studies showed the market was oversaturated, and it would cannibalize customers from other casinos, including Riverside Casino and Golf Resort. In June, the commission OK’d a license for the Wild Rose Casino in Jefferson, but weeks later, commissioners informally agreed to a three-year moratorium for granting new casino licenses.
Meanwhile, the casino industry in Eastern Iowa has expanded since then with the backing of the commission, which approved the relocation the Isle Casino in Bettendorf and Rhythm City in Davenport from riverboat to larger land-based complexes.
Iowa has 19 state-licensed casinos for a population of 3 million people.
The make up of the gaming commission remains the same as the one that rejected the license request in 2014. Gov. Terry Branstad reappointed commission member Richard Arnold, of Russell, last week
Terms for two other members, Chairman Jeff Lamberti of Ankeny and Carl Heinrich of Council Bluffs, expire in April 2017. They both voted against the license.
The $313.9 million in gambling revenue in Iowa collected in fiscal 2015 was an increase of $5.3 million, or 1.7 percent, compared with 2014, according to commission reports. However, it was down 1.2 percent, or $3.9 million, from $317.8 million in fiscal 2013.
Lamberti said on Friday new applications can be made at any time and would be reviewed. But unless something significant has changed in the application or the market, he said, the outcome is unlikely to be different.
“It’s pretty safe to say if they resubmit the same proposal as before, it’s hard to believe the economic condition has changed in such a little amount of time,” Lamberti said.
When asked whether devoting revenue to flood protection amounted to a change, Lamberti said applications are looked at in their totality, so how proceeds are used would be a new consideration. Whether it is a significant enough change to sway commission members would be hard to say without seeing an application, he said.
The latest pitch for a Cedar Rapids casino is focused on overcoming delays in federal aid. Corbett has said federal aid, which was authorized at $73 million in 2014 for a system of levees, flood walls and pumps, is at risk because the Cedar Rapids project’s standing is slipping in the federal cost-benefit ratio. Corbett said the city isn’t giving up on the federal money, which hasn’t come, but he is looking at ways to deal with the delay.
The money was authorized by Congress but was never funded in the budget prepared by the Office of Management and Budget, which produces the president’s budget.
Meanwhile, Cedar Rapids has yet to construct a meaningful flood protection system, eight years after the flood of 2008 wreaked havoc on residential, commercial and industrial areas. Revenue from a casino would help, Corbett said.
The original casino plan had earmarked 1.5 percent of annual revenue to the city and Linn County, Corbett noted. Cedar Rapids could leverage the money to make up for the delay in federal aid, which is planned as a funding match for state and local dollars.
http://www.thegazette.com/subject/n...or-casino-could-aid-flood-protection-20160308
