The state has operated without a budget since Sunday, and has notified about 25,000 employees not to show up to work next week unless a compromise is reached.
For Pennsylvania's slots parlors, millions of dollars in profits could depend on 14 state Revenue Department employees who are set to be furloughed Monday at 7 a.m.
The employees monitor the centralized computer system that tallies Pennsylvania's share of all slot wagers. Without those technicians and clerks, slot machines must, under state law, go silent.
"Clearly, the industry's become a political football," said Sen. Jane Earll (R., Erie), chairwoman of the Community, Economic and Recreational Development Committee, which held a hearing yesterday to examine the impact that a partial government shutdown would have on slots parlors and the $1.7 million they generate daily in state revenue.
Problem is, the first two witnesses scheduled to testify didn't show.
Earll had asked Revenue Secretary Thomas Wolf and Office of Administration Secretary Joseph Martz to field questions at the hearing. But the administration said the two would not appear and called the hearing "ill-timed." The governor outlined his furlough plan to legislative leaders in May, and any hearings should have been held before now, the administration said in a letter to Earll.
Refusing to testify, Earll responded, was "the height of arrogance."
Later in the day, the GOP-controlled committee voted along party lines to issue subpoenas to compel Martz and Wolf to testify when the hearing resumes at noon today.
Sen. Robert Tomlinson (R., Bucks), whose district includes PhiladelphiaPark Casino in Bensalem, said Rendell's strategy baffled him. Shutting down the slots parlors would only strengthen the resolve of those Senate Republicans who oppose gambling and would love nothing more than to see casinos closed, he said.
