Scott County Supervisors say no to Bristol's casino revenue request

GATE CITY — The Scott County Board of Supervisors gave a message for County Administrator Josh Wilson to pass on to the Southwest Virginia Regional Improvement Commission on Wednesday.The commission handles distribution of regional revenues tied to the Bristol Hard Rock Casino, and Wilson — one of the commission's members — told the supervisors that Bristol, Virginia, officials want to increase their share of the casino's annual state gambling tax revenue from 27% to 50% of the annual total.Under the current distribution formula approved by the Virginia General Assembly, Bristol is set to receive approximately $4.45 million of a projected $16 million plus in revenue. The current state formula divides the casino's total annual gambling tax revenue into 18 equal shares — projected at $888,900. Bristol now receives five shares. Scott and the other 12 commission member localities — Bland, Buchanan, Dickenson, Grayson, Lee, Russell, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington, Wise and Wythe counties and the city of Norton — receiving one share each.Bristol's request comes at a time when the city faces budget pressures from closing its landfill and other issues, Wilson told the supervisors. Besides the gambling tax, he added, Bristol gets the full share of real estate, meals and hotel tax revenue from the casino.The commission has approved a letter to send to the General Assembly recommending against the Bristol proposal, Wilson said, but is delaying it to allow the member local governments to give their opinion. He said Bristol's proposal probably does not have enough votes for commission support.If the 5/13 share formula remains in place, Wilson said, annual gambling tax revenue could climb to $20 million in subsequent fiscal years, with Scott and other localities seeing their share climb from $888,400 to $1.1 million.The board voted to have Wilson relay its position against Bristol's request. Firewood Ministry support The supervisors voted 7-0 to grant Kingdom Firewood Ministry $5,800 from the board's contingency fund to buy a new trailer to haul firewood processed by the ministry for families in need in Scott County.As of November, the ministry had supplied loads of firewood to 30 households to help those residents offset increasing electric heating costs.