Senate subcommittee recommends its parent panel support Petersburg casino referendum

RICHMOND – Petersburg's casino referendum legislation is on its way to a full committee Wednesday with the recommendation of a subcommittee to let it ride.

Tuesday afternoon, the Senate General Laws & Technology Committee’s gaming panel overwhelmingly approved Sen. Lashrecse Aird’s bill adjusting the parameters of 2019 legislation that created five casino “host cities.” That passage, plus glowing comments about the measure from some subcommittee members, is a 180-degree turn from the last two legislative sessions when lawmakers grumbled about Petersburg trying to box out Richmond, the only one of the five cities whose voters rejected a casino referendum.

One significant difference in 2024 is the election of Aird, a very popular Democrat and former delegate, to the Senate – the chamber that pulled the plug on Petersburg in previous sessions. En route to her November 2023 victory, Aird overwhelmingly ousted incumbent Joe Morrissey in the June party primary, Many lawmakers publicly and privately hinted that Morrissey – a polarizing figure known as much for his checkered personal past as his public service – and his political personality were prime factors in the referendum’s dismissal.

Related: Speaker: Petersburg casino vote on track now due to 'right leadership' in General Assembly

Even Aird’s presentation to her colleagues was different than in the past. Instead of glowing terms such as a “classic American city” that dotted the two previous attempts, her pitch to the subcommittee was more direct. She outlined the basics of Senate Bill 628: limiting a host city to under 200,000 population, possessing minimums of 17% of all real estate tax-exempt, 21% poverty rate and 13% unemployment rate, and removing the vendor-preference requirement for a Virginia-based Native American tribe.

The planned casino for Norfolk is backed by the Pamunkey tribe.

Aird likened Petersburg to host cities where casinos are already up and running – Bristol, Danville and Portsmouth – in that each of them was “in need of significant economic opportunity” to jump-start economic growth. Economic reports from those three cities, the senator noted, indicate that not only have the casinos spurred growth, they also have exceeded projected revenues.

“The city of Petersburg more than exhibits that same need,” Aird said. She pointed to a 2022 Joint Legislative Audit Review Commission study that said a Petersburg casino would generate an estimated $204 million in annual state gaming revenue and $12.2 million in local taxes for Petersburg.

Despite past help from the state legislature to Petersburg to turn around the economic losses of the past five decades, “the city still struggles with poverty rates, educational barriers, health care barriers and challenges with an aging infrastructure,” Aird noted.

Petersburg City Manager March Altman told the subcommittee that a casino referendum would help address “generational poverty” within Petersburg.

Also unlike previous sessions, everyone who approached the podium all expressed support for the referendum bill – even the local hospitality union that had vehemently opposed Petersburg last year.

Unite Here Local 25 had a problem last year with Petersburg already committing to a casino vendor, The Cordish Companies of Maryland. Union members claimed Cordish had a history of not doing right by the union, and that was why they were in favor of Richmond getting a second shot at voting on the casino.

This time around, Petersburg came to the state Capitol with a clean slate. Cordish has since pulled out of the Petersburg deal, and Altman said the city “was committed to a process” of doing business differently.

“I appreciate that,” subcommittee chairperson Jeremy McPike, D-Prince William County, told Altman.

“We have many red shirts here who have come to support this project,” said Paul Scwalb, executive secretary-treasurer of Unite Here Local 25. At his urging, almost two full rows of gallery attendees stood in solidarity.

“Hospitality jobs can be the type of jobs that change communities and bring families forward economically,” Schwalb said. “As described, this project will do just that.”

Sen. Jennifer Carroll Foy, D-Prince William County, said Aird’s bill “will bring about generational change” for Petersburg.

“It will spur economic development, provide infrastructure improvements, jobs, increase tourism,” said Carroll Foy, a Petersburg native.

Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico County, said he had “mixed feelings” about the bill in previous sessions, but he plans to vote for it this time.

After the subcommittee vote, Aird said she felt the panel “stood with the citizens of Petersburg” in giving them the opportunity to vote on the casino. The bill will be heard before the full Senate General Laws & Technology Committee Wednesday afternoon.

Just like its predecessors, Senate Bill 628 will also get a look from the Senate Finance & Appropriations Committee, the panel that killed its predecessors. However, Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth – who chairs that committee – is a chief co-patron of the bill with Aird. In 2023, Lucas led a last-minute move in the committee to kill it.

Should the bill go all the way through the legislature – which with Democratic support in both the House and Senate, it is expected to do – and Gov. Glenn Youngkin sign it into law, Altman said the referendum could go before Petersburg voters this November.

Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @BAtkinson_PI.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Senate subcommittee recommends passage of Petersburg casino referendum