After congestion toll win, Gov. Hochul must say ‘No’ to casino-crutch revenue plan

Scare New York electeds off one bad idea and they’ll immediately batten on another: Witness the cadre of state Assembly members demanding a fast track for the state’s new casino licenses to make up for the revenue lost from the now-dead congestion tolls. 

Assemblyman Gary Pretlow (D-Mt. Vernon), who co-chairs the Racing and Wagering Committee, is vocal about the need to get the gambling dens up and running as soon as possible. 

“We have to bring the casino deals to fruition — the MTA needs the money,” he told The Post; co-chair state Sen. Joe Addabo (D-Queens) is equally eager to start stacking chips. 

So they and others want Hochul’s John Hancock on a just-passed Assembly bill to grease the license-awarding path. 

The MTA may need cash, but ramming through casino deals to provide it has got to be among the worst ideas yet to come from our legislative overlords — and it has some very stiff competition. 

First off, the licensing process stinks to high heaven: The heavy wallets of the bidders — for the licenses in question, the minimum expected bid is $500 million on up to heaven knows how much — draw greedy pols like trash draws flies. 

The fat-cat gaming operators and real-estate firms in play for the licenses have a huge incentive to cough up big for the campaign coffers of politicians with influence over the process.  

And indeed the list of would-be operators reads like a rolodex of the connected and powerful: Steves Cohen and Wynn, Related Cos., SL Green and Caesars. 

Cohen has handed Gov. Hochul megabucks; so has SL Green chief Marc Holliday. 

Equally important, casinos in general are major economic busts in the Empire State. 

Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo tried to sell them as big job-creators, but even a cursory look at the $200 million shortfall that slammed upstate casinos in 2018 proves they’re not all they’re cracked up to be. 

And new casinos tend not to generate new revenues but simply cannibalize gamblers from other casinos (as witness the dozen-plus casinos that have died off in Atlantic City). 

And that’s to say nothing of the fact that, given an increasingly lawless environment in Gotham, casinos would be huge problem zones for prostitution, drugs and general public disorder. 

Assuredly not glamorous, James Bond-style establishments. 

Hochul deserves real credit for standing against prog madness on congestion pricing; let’s hope she shows the same spine on this inanity.