Staff Blog
Phila Pols say Foxwoods should get the boot
WHYY's Susan Phillips reports today that State Senator Larry Farnese and State Representative Mike O'Brien are both calling on the state to tell Foxwoods its time is up.
Said Sen. Farnese:
They should shut the door on this and we should move forward. And the city of Philadelphia should move forward on this. I think its a bad idea to try and give them additional time. Because they've never convinced anybody and they've never done anything to prove they can do what they say they're gonna do.
Yesterday, the Inquirer's Jennifer Lin broke the news on a buried clause in a proposed amendment to the amazingly pernicious table games bill that would give Foxwoods yet another extension to get up and running.
The casino actually just got an extension in August, giving it another two years to open. This amendment would have allowed it to take yet another year.
But Foxwoods appears to be in serious financial difficulty. They've been unable to find sufficient funding for their South Philly waterfront location; and, the AP reports today that Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut just announced that they'd be defaulting on a debt payment, prompting Standard and Poor's to lower their credit rating to a 'D.'
Why, then, do there seem to be efforts afoot in Harrisburg to help the faltering casino afloat?
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The writer asks, “why, then, do there seem to be efforts afoot in Harrisburg to help the faltering casino afloat?”
Answer: Because the local investors are the governor’s friends-Ron Rubin, Ed Snider, Lewis Katz, Peter DePaul, etc.