DAUPHIN COUNTY, Pa. (WHP) \u2014 The Pennsylvania Supreme Court gave lawmakers 120 days to prepare for the deadline. A bill taxing the machines could have allowed them to remain legal, but lawmakers did not pass legislation in time.<\/p>\n
Now, lawmakers from both parties said they are still willing to work toward a solution, while disagreeing over how the process has unfolded.<\/p>\n
State Rep. Russ Diamond, R-Lebanon, a member of the House Gaming Oversight Committee, said he expected skill games to be a major topic of discussion over the summer but did not see the negotiations he anticipated.<\/p>\n
“I heard nothing from anyone,\u201d Diamond said. \u201cIt truly is the worst part of Harrisburg, the political bickering and posturing. I\u2019m so sick of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diamond introduced two house bills that would have taxed skill games at 20%. Those proposals were rejected by House Democrats.<\/p>\n
Gov. Josh Shapiro offered another approach, recommending a 52% tax rate that would match the rate applied to traditional casino slot machines.<\/p>\n
House Democratic leadership said it remains willing to negotiate a deal that would generate revenue for the state while establishing rules for the machines.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Democrats said they \u201cstand willing and eager to come to a reasonable resolution to the skill game issue that would both bring in new revenue and ensure a safe and equitable skill games framework.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senate Republican leadership also said it wants to reach an agreement, emphasizing that any proposal would need support from both chambers and the governor.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has always been our intent to find a framework to make gaming reform a reality and help communities across the Commonwealth,\u201d Senate Republicans said. \u201cAddressing this issue requires all parties coming together to reach a responsible and reasonable solution that can pass both chambers and be signed by the Governor.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for when lawmakers could reach a deal, Diamond said the legislative calendar could push the issue into the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there is a possibility. But if you look at the legislative timeline, it\u2019s kind of going to be at least six months out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Diamond pointed to the November election, the swearing-in of lawmakers in January and the governor\u2019s budget address in February as milestones that could affect the timeline.<\/p>\n
The Pennsylvania House and Senate are scheduled to return to session on Oct. 19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DAUPHIN COUNTY, Pa. (WHP) \u2014 The Pennsylvania Supreme Court gave lawmakers 120 days to prepare for the deadline.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-307044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}