[New reporting, 2/3/24:]
Because of the potential regional ramifications, would the Arlington County Civic Federation take a look, and perhaps take a stand, on a proposed casino for Tysons?
Not in the near term, its president told the GazetteLeader.
"It hasn't bubbled to the top of the pot for us yet," federation head John Ford said in response to a GazetteLeader inquiry. But his response did not rule out some future discussion of the proposal.
The measure to allow (though not require) the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to hold a countywide referendum on establishment of a casino in Tysons was killed off by a power state Senate committee, following a firestorm of protest from community organizations and some local leaders in Fairfax, including members of the Board of Supervisors. But it is likely to return for 2025.
[Original coverage, 2/2/24:]
After raising a firestorm of opposition from local officials and civic groups, a state Senate bill that would allow Fairfax County officials to hold a referendum for a casino in Tysons has been pushed back to the 2025 General Assembly session.
The Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on Rresources voted 4-0 Feb. 1 to carry the bill over to next year’s session.
The bill’s patron, state Sen. David Marsden (D-Fairfax), pressed his case, saying the potential benefits from casino to Virginia and Fairfax County were “just enormous” and would help with school-construction funding and local needs.
“Because of the pandemic, which really hit us hard, Fairfax County is losing a lot of commercial-real-estate income and the decline in Metro ridership has added greatly to the burden there,” Marsden said. “This will help with that, it will help with the state, and I think it’s time to send this to the local government for them to make their own analytics, make their own decisions about this, the pros and cons, and decide whether they want to have a referendum to the citizens.”
Marsden added, “There’s lots of local control here. My job, in a Dillon Rule state, is to give my county options to deal with some revenue problems that may be coming up in the present as well as the future.”
Marsden alluded to the MGM National Harbor casino in Maryland, and said 30 percent of its revenues came from Virginia.
“That’s $150 million we’re losing every year to Prince George’s County,” he said.
Using a 70-30 percent revenue split between Virginia and Fairfax County, a Tysons casino would generate about $94 million per year for the county and more than $300 million for the state, Marsden said.
“We either compete or die,” Marsden said. “The gauntlet has been laid down. Maryland has a number of these facilities. All this is, is giving local government in Fairfax County to look at this.”
State Sen. R. Creigh Deeds (D-Charlottesville) said before allowing Petersburg to be added to the list of potential casino locations, the proposal went through a process with the General Assembly’s Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission (JLARC).
Sen. Mamie Locke (D-Hampton) inquired whether the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors had weighed in on the proposal. Marsden responded that he’d been in contact with supervisors occasionally throughout the process, and that the board recently had issued a letter outlining concerns about the casino process, but had not taken a position against the bill.
“I think that speaks volumes, the fact that they did not step forward and oppose the legislation,” he said.
But local officials attending the hearing promptly let their views be known.
Supervisor Walter Alcorn (D-Hunter Mill), whose district has about one-third of the land that could be used for the casino, told the committee he was a “strong no” against the proposal.
Vienna Mayor Linda Colbert echoed that sentiment.
“The town of Vienna is strongly opposed to any casino – even any proposal of a casino in Tysons,” she said. “We feel like we have been a part of the Tysons [comprehensive] plan, strategic plan, for many, many years . . . and in no way was a casino ever mentioned. [It was] never part of that plan. Vienna residents are just really, really strongly against this. I haven’t heard from one resident, actually, that is for it.”
Herndon Town Council member Naila Alam said the Council also opposed the casino.
Marsden countered that the proposed casino has the “heavy support of labor in Northern Virginia” because of the estimated 3,200 to 4,200 jobs that would be created for the facility’s construction and operations.
Virginia Diamond, president of the Northern Virginia Labor Federation, said the organization strongly supported the casino because of the jobs it would create for the community.
“This is good for Northern Virginia,” Marsden said, adding that Fairfax County had lost 10 points on its Local Composite Index score, which is used to calculate state funding for education. “I don’t want us to become more of a taker. I want us to become more of a giver to the rest of the state.”
Subcommittee Chairman Sen. L. Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth), who described herself as “the Casino Queen,” said she wanted to keep the bill alive and would like updated revenue projections for a Northern Virginia casino.
The committee then voted to carry the legislation over to the 2025 session.
