Wigilia Dinner at Wilkes University

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Singer-Songwriter Leonard Cohen dead at age 82

PLAINS TWP. &#8212; Mohegan Sun Pocono officials told the board of commissioners Thursday night that the casino will continue to pay the township local share tax funds despite a September ruling by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that declared the tax unconstitutional.&#8220;We are honored to be working with Plains Township,&#8221; casino President Anthony Carlucci said at the board&#8217;s monthly meeting. &#8220;By no means whatsoever with this tax issue are we looking to save money. Even during this hazy period, rest assured we&#8217;re going to pay you your money.&#8220;The money that you well deserve and you have, I&#8217;m going to pay as long as we need to.&#8221;The state Supreme Court ruled that the tax, which goes to communities that have casinos, violated the state&#8217;s Uniformity Law because it taxes under-preforming casinos more. The court gave the state legislature 120 days to correct the law, but the General Assembly adjourned without passing a new law.&#8220;This is a great community, and we want to keep it that way,&#8221; Carlucci said after the meeting. &#8220;Whatever we normally owe, we&#8217;re going to continue as if nothing&#8217;s changed. We want to keep our home community happy. That&#8217;s the message we want to send.&#8221;State Sen. John Yudichak, D-Plymouth Township, said he hopes the problem will be rectified by July 1 &#8212; the day the state budget is due.&#8220;We recognize that the court gave us a very specific challenge, 120 days for us to try to get the General Assembly to agree,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Unfortunately, that didn&#8217;t happen before the legislature session ended.&#8221;Yudichak said the because the casino is in Plains Township, the township would see a loss of $2.5 million without an agreement from the casino.&#8220;We wanted to make sure we worked together with the local municipality, with Mohegan, and Mohegan stepped up in a big way,&#8221; he said. &#8220;This will continue through a memorandum of understanding, until new legislation is in place, and we have a new local share agreement statewide.&#8221;In other news, a new commissioner was sworn in at the meeting.Peter J. Biscontini was sworn in by Luzerne County Judge Jennifer Rogers.He replaces longtime commissioner Brigid O&#8217;Connor, who passed away in September. Prior to her death, O&#8217;Connor served six terms on the township&#8217;s board of commissioners.Officials also approved the $9.3 million dollar budget for the 2017 year during the meeting. Chairman Robert Sax said that the budget comes with no tax increase for township residents.<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Marcella KesterFor Times Leader</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach the Times Leader newsroom at 570-829-7242 or on Twitter @TLnews.</shirttailMeta></div>

Mohegan Sun Pocono agrees to pay LSA funds to Plains Twp.