Mario Civera and John McBlain have about 4 million reasons to be mad at the state's casinos.
That's how much the county stands to lose after a court ruled in the casinos' favor in a lawsuit that claimed the tax deal involved in host city agreements was unconstitutional.
The county gets about $4 million a year from the deal that allowed Harrah's to set up shop on the Chester waterfront. For Chester, the hit is even more severe. If the ruling stands, the could see nearly a quarter of their annual revenue disappear in a city already in dire economic straits.
The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by some of the smaller, "boutique" casinos, who claimed that the host agreements in effect took a much heavier bite out of their revenue than the larger casinos such as Harrah's and Parx.
County Council Chairman Civera wasn't buying that argument during this week's council session.
"The hit we took is uncalled for," Civera said. "The casinos should be embarrassed in what they did to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania."
So how to fix it? Councilman John McBlain said the ball now is in the Legislature's court to correct the flaw in the legislation that ushered in legalized casino gaming in Pennsylvania.
Unfortunately, that is not likely to happen in this session.
The court did delay the effect of the ruling for 120 days so the Legislature could address the issue.
The clock is ticking.
You can read the full story on the council session here.
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