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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State
Rep. Bill Keller |
  
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Keller, Philadelphia lawmakers announce historic casino agreement
HARRISBURG, July 4 – State Rep. Bill Keller, D-Phila., last night stood with his House and Senate colleagues to announce a historic agreement to encourage prospective casino operators to re-site the establishments.
Keller joined other Philadelphia lawmakers and leaders, including Rep. Dwight Evans and Sen. Vince Fumo, at a news conference detailing their plan to sit down with Gov. Ed Rendell, the casino operators and all interested parties to ask for the movement of the casinos to a different area of the city.
"We recognize that these casinos will bring in a lot of revenue for the state, and we don't want the casino operators to just pack up and leave the Philadelphia area. But it would be in the best interests of the city to relocate to another area – an area where there will be less of a negative impact on neighboring communities, traffic patterns, infrastructure and waterways," Keller said.
Keller and his colleagues have fought for the relocation of the SugarHouse and Foxwoods casinos for several years. The building plans hit a logjam after gaming licenses were issued. He voiced concern that the project did not constitute appropriate land use after the licensees were unable to obtain control of riparian lands from the Commonwealth.
"Before Mayor Street left office, he granted use of the riparian lands to the casino licensees," Keller said. "That was not within his jurisdiction, and current Mayor Nutter quickly reversed that decision. It would be extremely difficult for the licensees to regain custody of those lands under state law, and as such it would put them past the one-year deadline to have the casinos up and running. We as lawmakers saw it was our duty to step in and develop a new strategy."
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