Racetrack casinos reject plan to raise their taxes

The state’s race track casinos have rejected a Senate proposal that calls for higher taxes on the tracks than proposed by the Iowa House. The deal’s part of the legal tussle that started when the tracks sued the state, saying they shouldn’t be forced to pay higher taxes than the riverboat casinos. Senate President Jeff Lamberti, a republican from Ankeny who’s a lawyer, says lawmakers are now back to the drawing board — and hampered because the legislature’s computer system is down.Lamberti says, though, the legislature’s computer system is down and they can’t compare and contrast different tax rates. Lamberti says lawmakers don’t want to be “punitive” as they can’t pick a tax rate and impose it on the race tracks because they want to have a settlement with the tracks. That legal settlement’s necessary to get the tracks to accept the new tax rates and in return forgive the millions in back taxes the Iowa Supreme Court has ruled the state owes the tracks.