Atlantic City casino PILOT hearing set for April 25
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ATLANTIC CITY — In about a month, lawyers for the state will try to convince Atlantic County Assignment Judge Michael J. Blee to reconsider a Feb. 25 decision in the lawsuit against the new casino payment-in-lieu-of-taxes law.
A hearing on the motion for reconsideration is set for April 25, Atlantic/Cape Vicinage Civil Division Manager George Coan said.
"The motion had initially been returnable this Friday, April 1," Coan wrote in an email response to questions, "but at the request of counsel the motion was adjourned and is now set to be heard on April 25."
Atlantic County sued the state to stop the amended PILOT law, which state lawmakers quickly passed in December and was signed by Gov. Phil Murphy days before Christmas, from taking effect.
Murphy's office has repeatedly declined to comment on the case.
The new law lowered casinos’ payments from what they would have been had the original PILOT law continued, mainly by removing online sports betting and internet gaming from calculations of gross gaming revenue.
ATLANTIC CITY — The state is expected to ask the court to reconsider a judge’s Feb. 25 decis…
Then Senate President Steve Sweeney, a Democrat and the law’s sponsor, said last December that without the new law up to four casinos could close.
Former Atlantic County Superior Court Judge Joseph Marczyk ruled Feb. 25 that the new PILOT law is in violation of a 2018 consent order related to an earlier lawsuit by Atlantic County against the original PILOT law.
Under the consent order, the county was to get about 13% of PILOT funds calculated under the 2016 law. That law was interpreted as including online sports betting and internet gaming under gross gaming revenues.
The amendments will provide the county with $15 million to $26 million less through 2026 than following the consent order under the original law, according to the county.
In his Feb. 25 order, Marczyk did not prohibit the state from implementing the new PILOT law “except to the extent they are subject to sanctions and/or damages” to be determined in a hearing before Blee, who took over when Marczyk moved to the Appellate Division.
In a hearing earlier this month, John Lloyd, the lawyer for the state, argued the Legislature had the right to define “gross gaming revenue” any way it saw fit, at any time, in spite of the 2018 consent agreement between the county and the state.
ATLANTIC CITY — The state violated the terms of a 2018 consent order between itself and Atla…
Lloyd also argued that nowhere in the original PILOT law or consent order is the definition given for “gross gaming revenue,” other than to say it is determined by the state Division of Gaming Enforcement.
County attorney Ron Riccio argued the consent order was based on the understanding that all gaming revenues — including brick-and-mortar, internet and later sports gaming — would be included in PILOT calculations and had been so included for the first several years of the PILOT.
