The bill, S2400, also abolishes hotel fees until the end of 2020 and creates a US$100m grant to the state Economic Development Authority for small business assistance.
Atlantic City’s nine casinos have been shuttered since March 16 with no date officially set for their reopening, although July 4 has been touted.
Senate President Steve Sweeney, the bill’s co-sponsor, said: “The goal of this bill is strictly to get (the casino) industry up and running to fund these programs. Right now, (the casinos are not) funding much of anything.”
Senator Chris Brown, the bill’s other sponsor, commented: “My concern has been and remains with the families who overnight found themselves unemployed and left to deal with a broken unemployment system for the last three months.”
“Working in a bipartisan manner, we took a step today toward saving 27,000 casino jobs while also assisting our small businesses so we can put our Atlantic County families back to work,” Brown added.
State Senator Michael Testa stated: “We need casinos to be dealt with separately because for 30 years the state of New Jersey has layered special tax upon special tax on this industry. The taxes that are being waived here are simply special taxes.”
Source: GMB
