Make Casino Opposition Priority: Vienna Mayor To Fairfax Supervisors

VIENNA, VA — As Vienna Mayor Linda J. Colbert prepared to visit the Virginia General Assembly last January to participate in local government day, she remembered that a bill had been introduced calling for a casino to be built in Tysons.

“The night before I left, I put a post on social media asking Vienna and the community what they thought about that,” she told the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. “Immediately, people started responding. By the next morning, I had over 200-300 responses. Every single one of them said, ‘No, this is not a good idea.’”

Colbert was one of a handful of speakers who testified during the public comment session on the board of supervisors’ draft legislative package, which lists the priorities the board will share with leaders in the Virginia General Assembly.

“You've heard about increased crime and traffic,” Colbert said. “Actually, our local Vienna Volunteer Fire department thinks it might affect their bingo on Sunday night, which raises money for our town. It would be a stress, of course, on police, medical services, and would not be good for the health of our community.”

Read all of Patch's reporting on the plan to build a casino on Metro's Silver Line in Fairfax County at Silver Line Casino.

When Colbert visited Richmond in January, one of the legislators she spoke with was Sen. Dave Marsden (D-Burke), who introduced the casino legislation. If passed, the bill would grant the supervisors the authority to put a casino referendum on a ballot. Then voters would vote on whether to build a casino in Tysons.

Even though the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee voted 13-2 in February to hold the bill over until the 2025 session, Marsden has told Patch on several occasions that he plans to reintroduce the referendum bill.

“I actually got to walk with Senator Marsden and I let him know all of these things, all the things that our Vienna residents had told me,” she said. “The only positive was the revenue. The only thing that I could think of, and quite frankly, that he shared with me.”

One of Marsden's arguments for a casino was that it would help Fairfax County to diversify its revenue base so it wasn't so dependent on the real estate tax.

Related: Tysons Casino Backer Paid $54K For 2024 General Assembly Lobbying

As a local elected official, Colbert sympathized with the need to raise funds, but she believes building a casino in Tyson isn’t the answer.

The Vienna mayor told the supervisors the possibility of a casino being built in Tysons is such a concern for the Vienna Town Council that opposition to that proposal is the No. 1 priority on the council’s current draft legislative package:

“The Town of Vienna opposes any action to establish, or facilitate the establishment of, any gambling casino in Fairfax County. The Town particularly opposes any such action that would lead to the establishment of a gambling facility in the Tysons area. Any such facility likely would have substantial deleterious effects on the quality of life in Vienna, including increased traffic.”

Colbert wrapped up her testimony by asking the supervisors to stand with their constituents in Vienna by saying “no” to a casino and rank the matter high on its legislative priority list.

At the beginning of the public comment session on Tuesday, Supervisor James Walkinshaw (D-Braddock), who chairs the board’s legislative committee, noted that he wanted to put the board’s legislative program into context. The current draft does not contain the word “casino.”

Related: Tysons Casino Backer Makes $75K In Political Donations Since January

“The 18-page legislative program is one element of our legislative engagement with the General Assembly,” he said. “We also, during the session, meet every Friday and take positions on hundreds of bills that are before the General Assembly, and we also, from time to time, communicate with either the governor or members of the General Assembly by letter.”

Last January, Chairman Jeff McKay (D-At-Large) wrote a letter to leaders in the General Assembly expressing the board's concerns about the casino legislation.

The county’s legislative program will be finalized during the legislative committee’s Nov. 26 meeting and the board will vote to adopt the finalized draft on Dec. 3, according to Walkinshaw

Related: 5K Union Jobs, Workforce Housing Among Benefits Of Casino: Union