The new proposed $36 million tax break for Live Casino and Hotel is the result of technical legal issues on who would be responsible for taking out a bond after agreeing to a tax increment financing district in 2015.
The tax increment financing, or TIF, district was agreed upon to fund a larger convention center — 4,000 seats compared to the initially proposed 1,500 — as part of a $200 million project that included the convention center, a 17-story and 310-room hotel, along with restaurants, a spa and other amenities.
It would have required The Cordish Cos. to take out a bond, and Anne Arundel County would have held portions of the property taxes to the side to repay that bond over a set period of years at a maximum interest rate of 5.25 percent.
But casino officials later learned The Cordish Cos. wouldn’t be allowed to take out the bond itself, thus scuttling the deal. The 2015 deal was never fully activated. No bonds were taken out and the special fund sat dormant.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Chase Cook over at the Capital Gazette