TYSONS, VA — Despite opposition from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and a majority of county residents, union leaders and business advocates continue to support legislation in the Virginia General Assembly that would pave the way for a casino to be built in Tysons.
For the second year in a row, Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-Mount Vernon) has introduced legislation seeking to give the board of supervisors the authority to put a referendum on a future ballot.
"Our unions feel very strongly that this proposal to have an entertainment district at Tysons Corner should not be taken off the table, but rather should be explored and should be studied, and that it should be the basis for a referendum where all the people of Fairfax County can have a vote on whether to approve it or not," said Virginia Diamond, president of the Northern Virginia Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, during an exclusive interview with Patch.
Diamond was one of the supporters of Senate Bill 756 who spoke during the Jan. 23 Senate Subcommittee on Gaming hearing. Subcommittee members voted 5 to 3 to recommend the bill for a vote of the full Senate Committee on General Laws and Technology.
Julie Coons, the president and CEO of the Northern Virginia Chamber, testified before the same subcommittee last year that the chamber supported the casino referendum bill, calling it an important driver for the diversification of Northern Virginia's tax base.
"The creation of a mixed use, transit-oriented entertainment district that would include not only a casino, but a state of the art conference facility and performing arts venue, is estimated to contribute an additional $140 million in annual revenue to the county," she said in 2025. "In addition to hundreds of millions of dollars for the Commonwealth. If approved by the Board of Supervisors, a development of this nature would diversify and broaden tax revenue for Fairfax County."
Although no one from the chamber spoke during the Jan. 23 subcommittee meeting, NVC still strongly supports the project that Comstock Holding Companies has proposed.
"NVC supports an entertainment district, including a casino, in Northern Virginia," an NVC spokesman said in an email to Patch. "NVC's NOVA Roadmap, our vision for the economic future of our region, calls for 'bold ideas for new initiatives and facilities that diversify revenue to reduce local reliance on real estate and personal property taxes' and this project can provide a new stream of revenue that the County currently does not have."
In spite of the union and chamber's support, the Tysons casino project has garnered a great deal of opposition in Fairfax County since it was first proposed.
In October, the Freedom Virginia Political Action Committee released the results of a survey showing that 75 percent of Fairfax County residents opposed a casino being built in Tysons.
Two months later, the Board of Supervisors voted 5 to 4 to include the following language in the legislative program it sent to Richmond this year:
"Oppose legislation in the General Assembly that authorizes a casino in Fairfax County without any request for such legislation from the Board of Supervisors, without implementation of a statewide Gaming Commission, and without a tax revenue split that substantially benefits Fairfax County as opposed to the Commonwealth. The designation and location of a casino is inherently a major land use decision and General Assembly intervention in Fairfax County’s land use processes would undermine decades of community consensus and economic success."
If the General Assembly passes SB756 this session and Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) signs it into law, it's unclear whether the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors would exercise its new authority and put a casino referendum on a future ballot.
"We're still trying to make the case to the Fairfax County Board, as well as to the General Assembly, that they should be open to considering this opportunity," Diamond said. "They should be negotiating over licensing fees. They should be negotiating over the revenue split with the state and the county, and they should be studying it to see whether or not you know what the pros and cons are."
Diamond's union has an agreement with Comstock Holding Companies, the Reston developer that has spent more than $2.5 million on campaign contributions and lobbyists in support of the proposed casino.
The project would create 5,000 union jobs, according to the agreement, both in construction and with the retail and commercial businesses that would operate in the 4-million-square-foot entertainment district once it was completed.
"We look at this as as an incredible opportunity to really transform the fabric of Fairfax County society for working class people," Diamond said. "That's why you want to give everybody a vote, because we want to be able to lay out the pros and cons. We have this Silver Line that's underutilized. You have a real budget problem in Fairfax County. To just give up possible revenue for turning this into an entertainment district destination, simply because there's going to be a gaming floor in a luxury hotel, which is going to be unlike the other casinos around the state, I think we just like to have that all taken into account."
Read Patch's reporting on Comstock Companies' plan to build a casino on Metro's Silver Line in Fairfax County at Silver Line Casino.
On Wednesday, the General Laws and Technology Committee voted 11 to 4 to advance SB756 to the Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations, which is the final stop before the full Senate votes on the bill.
The Finance and Appropriations Committee next meets at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 3. The meeting can be viewed via the Senate of Virginia's YouTube channel.