Legislators Hold Hearing on Stalled Racino Project
AUSTINTOWN, Ohio -- State Sen. Joe Schiavoni says he hopes a compromise can be worked out between Penn National Gaming Inc. and the Ohio State Racing Commission that would allow the gaming company to move forward on its proposed Austintown race track, while two members of the state House of Representatives urged the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber to use whatever influence it has in Columbus on behalf of the project.
Schiavoni, a member of the Ohio Senate Committee on Workforce and Economic Development, participated in a an informal hearing of the committee this morning at Austintown Township Hall, not far from the proposed track site. The focus of the hearing, which was conducted by the committee’s chairman, Sen. Bill Beagle, R-5 Tipp City, was the economic impact of the construction delay on the proposed racino.
Penn National Gaming Inc., based in Wyomissing Pa., halted construction last month on the proposed Hollywood Slots at Mahoning Valley Race Course after the Ohio State Racing Commission called on Penn National to submit a new plan with more enclosed track seating before it will approve the transfer of the thoroughbred license from its Beulah Park track outside Columbus to Austintown.
Penn National officials have said redesigning the track to meet the commission’s specifications will delay the project by four to six months, during which time the economic viability of the project will be evaluated as well. The company had expected to begin structural construction this month.
“We need to come to some sort of reasonable, rational solution,” said Schiavoni, D-33. “They both have made their points. They’re reasonable points. Yhey both make sense but you can’t have everything you want.”
State Rep. Ron Gerberry urged the Regional Chamber to directly contact the chairman of the Ohio State Racing Commission, and Rep. Robert Hagan called on the chamber to use its influence with Gov. John Kasich to advance the racino project. The state legislators directed the requests at the chamber’s vice president for government affairs, Tony Paglia, following his testimony on behalf of the project.
Paglia said the chamber had “made [its] voice heard” regarding its support for the project, which was announced more than two years ago at the chamber’s downtown Youngstown offices.
Gerberry, D-59 Austintown, who said he has spoken to four of the racing commission’s members, urged the chamber to directly contact the commission’s chairman, Robert Schmitz, regarding the project. “I believe the chamber has some leverage here,” Gerberry remarked.
When Paglia said chamber officials had not spoken to Kasich regarding the project, Hagan, D-58 Youngstown, requested that the chamber set up a meeting with the governor directly.
“No one has risen to the top of influence” in the Kasich administration as the state’s chambers of commerce have, Hagan said.
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.