Lawmakers could also vote on condemning socialism and censuring GOP Rep. Chuck Edwards.
Page F2From§Eachthe coffee break edition — 31 August 2026
House returns to avert a shutdown while Albany Democrats fight to block a 72% tax on a casino
As it ran on the front
THE LEDGER, RECONCILED
The House returns this week for a vote expected on a Senate bill to prevent a government shutdown. Also on the docket, six hundred miles north, in Albany: a coalition of Democrats asking Governor Hochul to block a 72 percent tax rate that state law currently assigns to New York City's first full casino license.…
…(cont) Run the two filings side by side and the numbers hold on their own. A shutdown means federal paychecks stop on a date certain. A 72 percent tax rate on a casino means the operator keeps 28 cents of every dollar instead of some larger number Albany has not specified in the reporting available to this desk. One of these gaps got a scheduled vote in the House this week. The other got a coalition letter.
This is not an accusation. This is a filing. The House bill exists because the money runs out on a calendar date, and Congress showed up to vote on it, which is more than can be said some years. The casino letter exists because a licensed operator is unhappy with a tax rate a legislature, presumably with actuaries in the room, already set into law. Both are legitimate uses of a lawmaker's time. The ledger simply notes they arrived the same week, filed by members of the same party, aimed at two very different kinds of running out of money.
Whose column gaps like that turn up in is a separate question, one this desk can't answer from a New York Post story alone. What this desk can confirm is the reported number, 72 percent, and the reported vote, and that no member of the delegation quoted in this coverage is asking Hochul to treat the shutdown math with the same urgency.
The books close on this note, hon: a government running low on money got a vote. A casino running at 72 percent margin got a letter. Both filings are real. Only one of them is required by the Constitution.
“They can't always find the votes to keep the government open, but they sure found time to write Hochul a letter about a casino's tax bill. Follow whose calls get returned fastest and you'll know whose money actually matters in Albany.”
“The shutdown bill is bipartisan, responsible governance, full stop — and the casino letter, that's just members standing up for a job-creating taxpayer who happens to run a casino — did I just call a casino operator a taxpayer in need of protection? I did. Moving on.”
The receipts
The House returns from its monthlong August recess on Monday, with Republican leadership looking to usher through a spending bill to fund the government beyond the midterm elections. The lower chamber is also expected to vote on a…
"The governor's office has to step in and resolve this issue. The Gaming Commission falls under the auspices of the governor."
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.