NorCo Gaming Board Awards $530k to Priority Municipalitities

L to R: Gerald Yob, James Pennington and Dave Heintzelman

NorCo's nine-member Gaming Board may have played Santa Claus for the last time. At their Monday night meeting, they awarded $* in "impact" grants to the municipalities surrounding Bethlehem's Sands Casino. Under recent changes in the state gaming law, county authorities will lose control over how gaming funds are awarded. They will be replaced by the Commonwealth Financing Authority who will decide from Harrisburg  how to dole out this money. Though the County Authority will continue to monitor outstanding grants, they will be unable to award any more money after this year.

Under the gaming law, the Board would first award grants to the five municipalities surrounding the Sands Casino, along with Bethlehem and Northampton County. These are Hellertown, Freemansburg, Bethlehem Township, Lower Saucon Township and Hanover Township. They are entitled to priority, but had to establish that the money being sought was to counter an impact of gambling Since six members of the none-member board are from these communities,

Lower Nazareth representative Jim Pennington said it's time to tell local municipalities, "The goose that laid the golden egg isn't there anymore."  Chair Jay Finnigan (from Hanover Township) agreed. "I think one of the reasons this authority will not exist in the future is because 31 or 32 municipalities expected to get rollover funds a little more consistently than they did," he said, referring to municipalities outside of the six communities that surround the Sands Casino. They were entitled to priority on slots revenue grants, but only if they could establish they were impacted by gaming.

"This is not a budget-filling mechanism for municipalities. This is merit based, and I don't think we ever really looked at it. I think it was how we can get this money into our budgets to make the money go away so it doesn't go to the other municipalities. And shame on us, that we allowed that to happen."

Northampton County is holding $745,314.90 for grants. The priority communities submitted $842,722.05 in grant applications. Bethlehem Township alone was seeking $336,800 of this sum, or 45% for an ambulance, fire marshal SUV and two patrol vehicles.

After listening to Finnigan's assessment, Northampton representative Tony Pristash proposed awarding only $339,776.29 of this sum.

Nolan, who had asked for 45% of the money, complained that Bethlehem Township was being treated unfairly, but Pritash answered him. "This is not a matter of fairness and equality. It's a matter of impact. You prove the impact, you get the award. That's how this Board works."

Nolan ended up being the sole No vote on Pristash's proposed distribution. .

No sooner had it passed that an amendment was offered by Bethlehem representative Joe Kelly to add $191,058.11 to fund police officers in Hellertown and Freemansburg. That passed over the objections of Finnigan, Pristash and Pennington.

The two motions combined represents a grant of $530,834.40 to the priority municipalities as follows  Hellertown (police officers); Freemansburg (police officers, patrol vehicle); Northampton County (court interpreter); Hanover Tp (license plate recognition system);  Bethlehem Tp (patrol vehicle) and Lower Saucon Tp (patrol vehicle).

The nine-person Board includes Kelly (Bethlehem), Nolan (Bethlehem Tp), Gerald Yob (Freemansburg), Finnigan (Hanover), Dave Heintzelman (Hellertown), Donna Louder (Lower Saucon), Pristash (Northampton), John Dally (Pen Argyl) and James Pennington (Lower Nazareth). Karen Collis is the Executive Director.

NorCo Gaming Board Accepting Impact Grant Applications

Northampton County's nine-member Gaming Board have begun accepting applications for impact grants from an anticipated $1.6 million in slots revenue that should trickle into County coffers this year from the Sands Casino. The first application has already arrived, according to Executive Director Karen Collis during the Board's February 22 meeting. All applications must be in by March 2.

Northampton County also receives about $1.2 million in table games revenue from the Sands, but that money is controlled by County Council. Table games revenue can be spent on anything considered in the "best interest" of the County. But with slots revenue, priority must be given to requests dealing with the impact created by gambling. In addition, these impact grant requests are limited to Bethlehem and the communities surrounding the Christmas City. Those are Freemansburg, Hellertown, Lower Saucon Bethlehem Township and Hanover Township.

If there is money left over after impact grants are awarded, the Gaming Board may consider grant requests from other municipalities. Last year, the slots revenue was only enough for impact grants.

Treasurer Tom Nolan indicated that the board is sitting on $263,000 in uncommitted funds as of the end of January. Its restricted account, from which grants are awarded, is down to $13.66.

The Gaming Board is made up of nine members: Joe Kelly (Bethlehem, Vice Chair), Tom Nolan (Bethlehem Tp, Treasurer), Gerald Yob (Freemansburg), Jay Finnigan (Hanover, Chair), Dave Heintzelman (Hellertown), Dave Willard (Lower Saucon), Tony Pristash (Northampton), John Dally (Pen Argyl, Secretary) and James Pennington (Lower Nazareth).

Seth Vaughn, Council's liaison to the Board, was absent from the meeting.

Brown's Clown Car Continues in Reverse

Tony Pristash is a local business owner and member of Northampton Borough Council. He is also one of three at-large members on Northampton County's nine-person Gaming Board.  But if Executive John Brown has his way, Pristash will soon be gone.

Northampton County gets all kinds of money from the Sands Casino. In addition to a host fee, it also brings in about $1.6 million in slots tax revenue annually, and about $1.2 million in table games revenue. State law is pretty flexible about how the table games revenue is spent  But it is much stricter about slots revenue. Northampton County had to create the nine-person Gaming Board just to dole out the slots revenue. Priority must be given to grant requests from Bethlehem and other communities that are contiguous to host city Bethlehem. After all impact grants have been awarded, other communities can apply. Most years, the pie is gobbled up by the host and surrounding municipalities.

Pristash, as one of the three at-large members, has to watch as most of the grants are awarded elsewhere. This may seem unfair, but that's the way the law is written. But in his years on the gaming Board, he has never tried to sabotage grant applications or steer things unfairly. He has often been a voice of humor on a Board with a tedious and thankless task.

At yesterday's Personnel Committee, Brown proposed replacing Pristash with Cindy Miller, a well-regarded Supervisor from Lehigh Township. In response to questioning by Ken Kraft, Brown admitted that Pristash wanted to continue serving, but he wanted to replace him with Miller anyway to "mix it up."

Peg Ferraro stated that Cindy Miller would "be fine, but I also know that the person who has the job really wants it."

Ken Kraft, who serves as Council's liaison to the Gaming Board, agreed that Pristash is "very active, very involved."  

This appointment will now go to Council tonight without a recommendation.

It's unclear precisely what Brown has against Pristash, although it is perhaps because he was part of an unanimous Board that refused to replace Executive Director Karen Collis with Brown's DCED Director, Diane Donaher.

This nomination is almost certainly headed to defeat tonight, and this is yet another illustration of John Brown's poor leadership.

The Gaming Board appointment is not like a cabinet official, where an Executive appointment is entitled to great deference. In fact, the Gaming Board's enabling ordinance, which was drafted by Lamont McClure after several months of study and discussions with Council, specifically provides that it is intended to be an "independent" body. In the discussions leading up to the Ordinance's adoption, McClure made clear that it was his intent to make it as inclusive as possible. He noted that the County Council could serve as the Gaming Authority, but thought it important to give a voice to those on the ground to work together.

It appears that Brown, in complete defiance of this ordinance, wants to pack the Board with people who will do his bidding. This is an insult to Cindy Miller, who is nobody's puppet.

He has needlessly embarrassed her and Pristash, a volunteer who did his job.

Tacky.