General Assembly
Sen. L. Louise Lucas (D-18) offers a solution to paying for
bridges, roads and tunnels: casinos. ‘Transportation is most near and dear to
my heart, but I don’t like tolls,’ she told the audience during the annual
Richard J. Holland Pre-Session Legislative Breakfast in the Smithfield Center
on Friday. The event was sponsored by the Isle of Wight-Smithfield-Windsor Chamber
of Commerce. The Virginia General Assembly convenes for its 60-day session
beginning Wednesday, Jan. 8. Del. Rick Morris (R-64) and Sen. John Cosgrove
(R-14) were also speakers for the occasion. Western Tidewater is included in
each of their respective districts.
Stating that 39 other states legally allow casino gambling,
she asked, ‘Why not Virginia?’ Lucas will again introduce ‘SB 19 Virginia
Casino Gaming Commission; regulation of casino gaming, penalties.’
The bill, if passed, would not only create a gaming
authority, but also allow casino gambling in qualified localities, such as
being limited to places were at least 40 percent of the land is exempt from
real property taxation. Further, the bill puts into law where the taxes go,
with 90 percent would be directed to the Toll Mitigation Fund. That will be
used to reduce tolls set up to pay for building and maintaining the Dominion
Boulevard Bridge and Roadway Improvement Project and the Downtown
Tunnel/Midtown Tunnel/Martin Luther King Freeway Extension Project.”
~Writes Stephen Cowles of the Tidewater News
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