09-10-10 Gaming Complete
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Public Hearing before NEW JERSEY GAMING SUMMIT LOCATION: Pegasus West DATE: September 10, 2010 Meadowlands Racetrack 10:00 a.m. East Rutherford, New Jersey MEMBERS OF SUMMIT PRESENT: Senator Jim Whelan, Co-Chair Assemblyman John J. Burzichelli, Co-Chair Senator Raymond J. Lesniak Senator Paul A. Sarlo Senator Stephen M. Sweeney Senator Jeff Van Drew Assemblyman Ralph R. Caputo Assemblyman Matthew W. Milam Assemblywoman Sheila Y. Oliver Assemblywoman Connie Wagner ALSO PRESENT: Sonia Das Jennifer L. Taylor Senate Majority Assembly Majority Summit Aide Summit Aide Hearing Recorded and Transcribed by The Office of Legislative Services, Public Information Office, Hearing Unit, State House Annex, PO 068, Trenton, New Jersey TABLE OF CONTENTS Page James L. Cassella Mayor East Rutherford 4 Dennis McNerney County Executive Bergen County 6 William Q. Derrough Managing Director Moelis & Company 7 Andrew B. Zezas President and Chief Operating Officer Real Estate Strategies Corporation 8 Dennis R. Robinson President and Chief Operating Officer New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority 8 Nicholas Amato, Esq. Private Citizen 42 Ron Simoncini Representing Meadowlands Regional Chamber of Commerce 63 Frank Vuono Founder and Partner 16W Marketing 65 John Saraceno Jr. Co-founder and Managing Principal Onyx Equities 68 Thomas H. Bruinooge, Esq. Former President Meadowlands Regional Chamber of Commerce 69 TABLE OF CONTENTS (continued) Page Thomas Misciagna President Bergen County Building and Construction Trades Council 75 Robert Liguori Business Manager Local 137 Sports Arena Employees 78 Richard Dressel Business Manager Local 164 International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 82 Kevin O’Brien President Local 632 International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees 85 Eric Boyce Business Manager and Financial Secretary Plumbers Local 24 United Association of New Jersey 89 Constantino T. Milano Executive Vice President Finance and Leasing Hartz Mountain Industries, Inc. 103 Tom Meyers Executive Director Fort Lee Film Commission 109 Thomas F. Luchento President Standardbred Breeders & Owners Association of New Jersey 112 TABLE OF CONTENTS (continued) Page John Forbes President New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, Inc. 117 Mike Tanner Executive Vice President United States Trotting Association 124 Karyn Malinowski, Ph.D. Director Equine Science Center Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey 126 George E. Hall Executive Director Hall Institute of Public Policy - New Jersey 133 Eugene Christiansen Chief Executive Officer Christiansen Capital Advisors 136 Dennis Drazin, Esq. Private Citizen 150 Christopher M. McErlean Vice President Racing Penn National Gaming, Inc. 151 Maureen Bugdon President Atlantic City Race Course 156 Joseph Wilson Chief Operating Officer Philadelphia Park 159 TABLE OF CONTENTS (continued) APPENDIX (continued): Page Celeste Kunz, VMD Emergency Veterinarian Meadowlands Race Track 167 Harold Lowenfels Private Citizen 169 Meir Geller Private Citizen 171 William Colon Private Citizen 171 APPENDIX: Testimony submitted by Dennis R. Robinson 1x Testimony submitted by Thomas F. Luchento 3x Petitions for Meadowlands casino submitted to Senator Paul A. Sarlo 5x pnf: 1-176 ASSEMBLYMAN JOHN J. BURZICHELLI (Co-Chair): Ladies and gentlemen, we’d like to begin the proceedings. Let me begin by first introducing myself, and providing welcome. My name is John Burzichelli. I serve in the New Jersey General Assembly, representing the 3rd Legislative District. Is that a little bit better? Good morning everyone. Let me first start by welcoming all of you and introducing myself. My name is John Burzichelli. I serve in the 3rd Legislative District in the General Assembly, and serve as Deputy Speaker to Speaker Sheila Oliver, who will be arriving a little bit later but serving on this panel. I’m honored to co-chair this important fact-finding Committee with my colleague and friend from the Senate, Senator Whelan, who is sitting to my right; and also with the distinguished members of both the Senate and the General Assembly who will be introduced as we roll on with the presentation of the various panels that are going to testify. Again, a start with a welcome and a thank you to the Sports and Exposition Authority for their warm hospitality today. I’m sure it is a pleasure for them to see so many people in this facility. And we should extend an invitation to all of you to come back and enjoy horse racing on the days that it runs, because this facility functions best when it’s full of people. Today’s effort, again, as I mentioned, is one of fact finding. Both the Senate President -- Senate President Sweeney and Speaker Oliver have put this panel together for that purpose: fact finding. With the cooperation of our colleagues here today, just myself and Senator Whelan 1 will offer these very brief opening remarks, and then we’ll get right to the business of this Committee. So let me further add by saying, seeing so many men and women of the trades here today reminds all of us of the stark reality that this economy is still struggling; and tells us the importance of the work of this Committee with regards to working on legislative issues that can help move New Jersey forward, help us prosper, and to focus on this gaming and entertainment industry which is so important to this State, the people of New Jersey, and working families. So this theme continues to be about: what can we do better to make New Jersey better positioned to retain jobs and to create jobs. Before I ask Senator Whelan to offer a brief opening remark, we do want to recognize a number of our other colleagues from the Legislature who have taken time to be here today because of their interest. I recognize Senator Beck, off to the side -- hello, Senator. I recognize Assemblyman Fred Scalera -- Fred is here somewhere. UNIDENTIFIED MEMBER OF AUDIENCE: (Indiscernible) ASSEMBLYMAN BURZICHELLI: Thank you, Fred. Also Assemblyman Dancer, who probably is the most expert we have in the horse racing industry in both Houses. Assemblyman Dancer is here. Assemblywoman Casagrande who -- of course both she and Senator Beck represent a district that has Monmouth Park as part of their landscape. And also I thought I saw Assemblywoman Valerie Huttle was here. ASSEMBLYWOMAN HUTTLE (from audience): Yes. ASSEMBLYMAN BURZICHELLI: Hello; very good. 2 That being said, let me ask Senator Whelan to bring us an opening remark, and then we’re going to introduce our first panel. Senator. SENATOR JIM WHELAN (Co-Chair): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Our goal today is really two things: First, we are here to listen. Hopefully we will hear ideas that we can craft into legislation, or craft into public policy, that will create a win-win for everyone. The notion that this is a North-South split, or the notion that this is the casino industry versus the horse racing industry, or the gambling industry versus Xanadu is not what we are about today. If we do this right -- and I believe we will do this right -- with the cooperation with my colleagues here on the panel, as well as the other members from the Legislature present, along with the Administration, we will find a way to save and strengthen the horse racing industry; find a way to save and strengthen the casino industry; and at the same time, find a way to get Xanadu finished. So that’s our goal of, not just today, but this entire process. And with that, Mr. Chairman, I’ll turn it back to you, and we can start to hear the testimony that we came here to hear. ASSEMBLYMAN BURZICHELLI: Thank you, Senator. And let me conclude the opening remarks by saying: We believe, collectively, that New Jersey has great opportunity. The assets we see around provide a chance to, again, reinvent ourselves where necessary, redevelop where appropriate, and be creative where we need to be. There’s opportunity here. When times are challenging, it’s the time to get smart, to work hard, and get ready for better times. And that’s what the goal of this Committee 3 is -- it’s jobs and it’s prosperity for this great State, and positioning ourselves to be leaders in this industry that we know is so very important. Let’s start with the first panel, which is made up of our local officials, for a brief welcome. We have Mayor James Cassella from East Rutherford -- welcome, Mayor. And we have Dennis McNerney, Bergen County Executive -- welcome. Gentlemen. M A Y O R J A M E S L. C A S S E L L A: Thank you, Assemblyman. First of all, I’d like to thank you for being here and holding this in East Rutherford, and I certainly would like to welcome all of you here. Senate President Sweeney, thank you very much for coming here. I hope all of you from southern New Jersey found your way here quite easily. But we do welcome you and, more importantly, I welcome all the members of the Legislature that are here. And even more important than that is, of course, all of the people who are here today because of their interest and their concern of what’s going to happen here at the Meadowlands and, specifically, the Racetrack, the Arena, Xanadu. So we are in this together, as has been mentioned by Senator Whelan. We are in this together, this is a statewide issue. Yes, it affects East Rutherford both financially and from a standpoint of jobs. Businesses will be lost if this racetrack closes. Unfortunately, it seems like every few years we are fighting one of the venues here from being closed. A few years back it was the Arena, and fortunately the Arena is still open. And now we’re doing the same with the Racetrack.