By Brian Trompeter
A proposed Tysons casino has generated opposition from local civic groups, and the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors also is expressing misgivings about the prospect.
In a Jan. 26 letter to leaders of the state Senate and House of Delegates, Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay (D) raised several of the board’s objections, which ranged from how the casino proposal came about to how profits from the facility would be shared, if it ever were built.
Legislation patroned by state Sen. David Marsden (D-Fairfax), SB 675, is moving through the General Assembly and would add Fairfax County to the list of Virginia localities where a casino could be built.
The measure has passed out of subcommittee and now is in the hands of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee. If the legislation makes it out of that committee, it would head next to the full Senate and then, if passed, to the House of Delegates.
Other jurisdictions that have received authorization to hold referendums on building casinos have asked for that authority, but Fairfax County has not, McKay’s letter noted. The county also “has not been substantively involved in the development of the casino concept envisioned by stakeholders and the patron of the legislation,” his letter read.
“Furthermore, since a community-engagement process was not conducted prior to the [bill’s] being introduced as it was in other jurisdictions, we believe the bill in its current form is likely to result in strong community opposition to the future referendum,” McKay wrote.
Local residents also are unlikely to accept how revenues would be shared, as dictated by state statute and the casino bill, McKay’s letter read. The state would receive more than 70 percent of the gaming-tax revenues generated by the casino.
In an e-mail to constituents, McKay said the revenue-sharing formula would not be a good deal for the county.
“We are already working hard to get more money from the commonwealth for education, and I do not have any interest in supporting a deal that would reinforce Fairfax County’s status as Virginia’s ATM,” his message read.
Supervisor Jimmy Bierman (D-Dranesville) agreed with that sentiment in his most recent Dranesville Dispatch newsletter.
“With respect to both the opportunity costs and the real costs of such a casino, in my view, the juice is not worth the squeeze,” wrote Bierman, who added that opposition to the casino so far has been uniform and “I have yet to speak to a single constituent in favor of a local casino.”
Marsden’s bill specifies that a casino would need to be built within a quarter-mile of an existing Silver Line station, outside the Capital Beltway, not in Dulles Airport’s flight path and within 2 miles of an enclosed regional shopping mall with at least 1.5 million square feet of gross floor area.
The casino location outlined in Marsden’s bill, the site of a former auto dealership near the Spring Hill Metrorail station, “has the potential to generate significant local tax revenue without a casino,” McKay’s letter to General Assembly leaders read.
Casino backers have indicated the casino would help revitalize Tysons. But Tysons – and especially Class A office space near its four Metrorail stations – continues to thrive, despite the post-pandemic shift to more employees working remotely, according to McKay’s letter.
“We are confident that Tysons is poised for continued success and will be the economic engine of the commonwealth for decades to come,” he wrote.
