\nWayne Parry, Associated Press \u00b7<\/p>\n
\tATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) \u2013 The Borgata casino asked a judge Monday to order Atlantic City to pay more than $62 million in tax refunds that the court has already determined the casino should get \u2013 a move that could end in seizure of some of the seaside gambling resort\u2019s assets or even bankruptcy.<\/p>\n
\tThe city missed a Sunday deadline to pay the refunds, which were ordered by a tax court that found the city had assessed the casino\u2019s property at too high a level given Atlantic City\u2019s declining gambling market. The refunds concern tax years 2009 and 2010.<\/p>\n
\tAtlantic City Mayor Don Guardian has said that the city can\u2019t afford to pay that all at once and that the city could be forced into bankruptcy if it is ordered to do so.<\/p>\n
\tJoe Lupo, the Borgata\u2019s senior vice president, said that including refunds already ordered for other tax years, Atlantic City owes the casino more than $150 million.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe are simply asserting our rights as a taxpayer to receive a refund of overpayments,\u201d he told The Associated Press. \u201cWe are also disappointed that the city is focusing solely on us in its attempt to resolve the situation. Atlantic City has paid refunds to every other (casino) property \u2013 except Borgata.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tIf the city doesn\u2019t pay soon, the court could seize city assets to help pay off the judgment. Monday\u2019s court filing asks the judge to order Atlantic City to pay up within 30 days.<\/p>\n
\tGuardian would say only that he hopes both sides can clarify the issues and reach a resolution soon.<\/p>\n
\tThe standoff is a costly symptom of the decline of Atlantic City\u2019s casino market since the first nearby casinos opened in Pennsylvania in 2006, when the city\u2019s gambling market was worth $5.2 billion. It has since fallen to $2.7 billion last year and will be lower than that this year. Four of the city\u2019s 12 casinos went out of business last year.<\/p>\n
\tAs a result, the casinos routinely challenge their property tax assessments \u2013 and often win, blowing huge holes in the city\u2019s budget that have to be closed by raising taxes on other properties, cutting spending or both. The city is already under the supervision of a state-imposed emergency manager, and a financial assistance package passed by the Legislature and awaiting Gov. Chris Christie\u2019s signature would hold $60 million in aid hostage until the city passes a fiscal recovery plan the state deems acceptable.<\/p>\n
\tThe Borgata is Atlantic City\u2019s top casino, regularly out-earning its competition. For the first 11 months of this year, it has taken in nearly $683 million, about twice as much as its closest competitor, Harrah\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Posted by:<\/strong> RFink13 on February 23, 2016, 3:38 am<\/p>\n \tIt’s sad that the taxpayers will get screwed again.<\/p>\n \tRichInMich<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Wayne Parry, Associated Press \u00b7 ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) \u2013 The Borgata casino asked a judge Monday to order Atlantic City to pay more than $62 million in tax refunds that the court has already determined the casino should get…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-casino-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumarchives.tmsites.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}