New Jersey Casinos May Open Friday or Saturday
ATLANTIC CITY – As reported by the Courier Post Online: "New Jersey has reached a new budget that will end a historic shutdown that forced Atlantic City’s 12 casinos to close, a
Atlantic City Skyline statehouse source said on Thursday. Joseph Corbo, president of Casino Association of New Jersey, said yesterday night the governor’s office told him casinos should be open tonight or early Saturday.
"New Jersey’s governor John Corzine and lawmakers reached a deal Thursday on a new state budget that will increase the sales tax but dedicate money raised by it to property tax relief. The deal came six days into a state government shutdown that closed Atlantic City casinos and threw more than 80,000 people out of work.
"...The deal calls for increasing the sales tax and putting half the money earned by it toward some form of property tax relief this fiscal year. The Legislature plans to spend the coming months considering property tax reform."...Corzine shut down nonessential government operations on Saturday after the Legislature failed to pass a budget by the July 1 deadline amid a dispute over the proposed sales tax increase. He also added that furloughed state employees should receive pay for the time they missed.
"More than 45,000 state workers were furloughed, including those who staff state parks and beaches and the gambling inspectors who keep an eye on the casinos. Without the gambling inspectors, Atlantic City’s dozen casinos had to shut their doors Wednesday, putting 36,000 casino employees out of work.
"Atlantic City’s casinos were allowed to stay open until Wednesday morning. The companies stood to lose up to $ 20 million a day in revenues, an industry official said. The casinos pay New Jersey about $ 1.3 million a day in taxes, so that is the amount of money the state lost each day in which gambling houses were closed."