{"id":15765,"date":"2015-03-19T12:51:30","date_gmt":"2015-03-19T20:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=15765"},"modified":"2018-09-05T09:10:02","modified_gmt":"2018-09-05T17:10:02","slug":"the-wrath-of-icahn-cautious-progress-in-indiana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/the-wrath-of-icahn-cautious-progress-in-indiana\/","title":{"rendered":"The wrath of Icahn; Cautious progress in Indiana"},"content":{"rendered":"

Using the power of the blogosphere, Carl Icahn<\/strong> opened an extra-large can of whup-ass on Unite-Here Local 54<\/strong> today. While he fleetingly alluded to the ineptitude of Trump Entertainment Resorts<\/strong> management (“The bottom line is that, even without making \"carl_icahn\"<\/a>exorbitant contributions to the UNITEHERE Health plan, the Taj Mahal<\/strong> is currently losing millions of dollars every month …”), Trump spent most of his letter putting a beatdown on Local 54 President Robert McDevitt<\/strong>. Noting that the local’s health plan had racked up a $140 million profit over the last five years (a much better financial track record than that of the Taj<\/a>), Icahn wrote that “your union leadership continues to demand that the Taj make exorbitant contributions.”<\/p>\n

This motivated him to liken Local 54 to a Mob protection racket that “would demand grocers pay for protection or suffer bricks being thrown through their store windows.” McDevitt’s weapons, \u00a0he said, were “strikes, picketing<\/a>, boycotts and other attacks to deter customers from patronizing the Taj Mahal …\u00a0Is it any surprise that in this environment a third of Atlantic City<\/strong>\u2019s casinos went under last year alone?\u00a0 Things are so dire that it will be hailed a success if the $2.4 billion Revel<\/strong> finally sells for less than 5% of its cost!” (You could say Icahn was pretty worked up.)<\/p>\n

Icahn mocked the Local 54 health plan as “murky, opaque” and said that, as a diversionary tactic, McDevitt’s people had made him the issue when “I am today one the many losers in \"Taj<\/a>this bankruptcy.” He added that paying into aforesaid health plan would make it impossible for him to reinvest in the Taj itself. “I have received numerous letters and phone calls from employees of the Taj Mahal thanking me for committing to lend the Taj Mahal the necessary funds to stay open and urging me to do whatever is necessary to save their jobs,” Icahn said, striking one of the few conciliatory tones.<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen whether his effort to drive a wedge between McDevitt and the rank and file is successful. Not if Taj bellman Carl Wallinger<\/strong> has anything to do with it. Contending that a third of his salary now goes toward his cancer-stricken wife’s health insurance, Wallinger fumed,\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m tired of Mr. Icahn\u2019s false choice between health insurance and profitability.\u00a0You know what is abhorrent? When one of the richest men in the world steals my health care and then calls me a mobster.\u201d Guess that blog posting didn’t go over so well with him.<\/p>\n

* Indiana<\/strong>‘s amphibious casino industry took another baby step onto dry land<\/a> yesterday. A bill which would permit casinos to come ashore (and give them tax credits for doing so, along \"Alting\"<\/a>extending free-play tax credits) passed the first of two state Senate committees that must approve it. The vote was unanimous.\u00a0 “We’ve never done something extremely bold. … even knowing that we’re having competition coming in\u00a0\u2014 so perhaps this year is the year that we can do that,” said\u00a0state Sen. Ron Alting<\/strong> (R, right<\/em>), sounding a cautiously hopeful note. The bill already passed the full House<\/a> with an overwhelming\u00a0majority.<\/p>\n

Bill sponsor Rep. Tom Dermody<\/strong> (R) warned of the peril from slot routes in Illinois<\/strong>, and from new casinos to the east and northeast.\u00a0“By doing nothing, by ignoring the problem, jobs will continue to be lost, revenues will continue to decline,” he testified. And, in a refreshing turn of events, some senators complained that the tax credits weren’t big enough<\/a>. When was the last time you heard that said by lawmakers about casino legislation? If you said “never,” go to the head of the class.<\/p>\n

Despite progress in the Lege, the bill could still be ixnayed by Gov. Mike Pence<\/strong>‘s veto pen. Any effort to tailor the bill to Pence’s liking is stymied by Pence’s coy\u00a0refusal to define what is, in his mind, an unacceptable “expansion” of gambling in the Hoosier State.\u00a0“I am open to common-sense reforms in business practices that allow these businesses to remain competitive in an increasingly competitive marketplace across the Midwest,” was as helpful as Pence got, adding,\u00a0 “We’ll continue to monitor it as it moves through the legislative process, and if it gets to my desk we’ll make a decision at that time.”<\/p>\n

For god’s sake, yes, Mike. Don’t do today what you can put off until next month.<\/p>\n

* Never take Donald Trump<\/strong> at his word. The Trump Taj Mahal pitchman’s lackeys are saying he “will not<\/a>” return to his NBC-TV<\/strong> sitcom, leaving the semantic door open for a change of heart. What’s the over\/under on Trump making a last-minute decision that he needs NBC more than America needs him?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Using the power of the blogosphere, Carl Icahn opened an extra-large can of whup-ass on Unite-Here Local 54 today. While he fleetingly alluded to the ineptitude of Trump Entertainment Resorts management (“The bottom line is that, even without making exorbitant … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,82,42,58,68,33,92,169,17],"tags":[205],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15765"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15765"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22400,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15765\/revisions\/22400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}