From the (Havre de Grace) Record
Perryville and Cecil County can’t spend a penny of the local grant money from Hollywood Casino Perryville until they have a multi-year plan for how the money will be spent. The casino, under state law, is required to give 5.5 percent of its gross gaming revenue per month to Perryville and Cecil County.
With October’s revenue numbers released last week, there is a total of $740,879 ready to be spent between the town and the county, but neither entity can touch the money. “Prior to any expenditure of any local impact grant funds, a county or municipality shall develop, in consultation with the local development council, a multi-year plan for the expenditure of local impact grants,” Vernon Thompson, Cecil County’s economic development director, read from the state law. Thompson said he expects the plan to be completed sometime after Jan 1, 2011.
“The reason we haven’t done it yet is because we were under the impression we would be receiving the impact grant funds at the end of the fiscal year, which would be next July,” Thompson said. “As it turns out, the state is going to be providing the money on a monthly basis. We found out we don’t have a year to complete the plan.”
Last year, Perryville and Cecil County agreed the local impact grant money will be split with 65 percent going to the county and 35 percent to the town.
