BANGOR – City councilors threw their support on Monday night behind a proposed change in the state’s formula for taxing Hollywood Slots at Bangor.

They also established a special committee to move forward the proposed arena project to replace the aging Bangor Auditorium.

The two actions were among many that councilors tackled during a regular meeting at City Hall.

Councilors voted 8-0 to adopt a resolve supporting the recommendations of the governor’s Committee to Review the Taxation of Slot Machines.

The recommendations call for clarifying the taxing formula so the public and state officials better understand what Hollywood Slots is actually earning and what is being taxed.

Under the proposal, Hollywood Slots would pay the state about the same as under the current formula. Last year, the slots operator paid out about $20.6 million in taxes to the state.

The taxation panel was empowered in June by Gov. John Baldacci in the aftermath of a financial impasse between state lawmakers and Penn National Gaming Inc., the parent company of Hollywood Slots at Bangor.

The dispute centered on a pair of legislative proposals that called for using more tax revenue from the company’s slot machines as a way to balance the state budget.

The controversy prompted the company to pull the plug May 8 on construction of the complex it is building just yards up Main Street from its temporary facility in the former Miller’s Restaurant building. The stoppage idled scores of subcontractors and construction workers.

The episode touched off an angry backlash, not only among Mainers who favored slots, but also among those who opposed gambling. The common theme was that lawmakers, in effect, were reneging on an existing arrangement between Penn National and the state that established how revenues would be taxed.

A week later, the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee officially killed the two slots revenue proposals as a show of good faith aimed at getting workers back on the job, and construction resumed.

Baldacci then created the committee to review the tax structure for slot machine revenues in hopes of preventing similar problems from surfacing again.

The panel’s recommendations are being incorporated as part of LD 1924. The proposed legislation is expected to be reviewed soon by the Legislature’s Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee. Neither a public hearing nor work session had been scheduled as of Tuesday.

Also on Monday, the Bangor council agreed to set up a special committee on arena implementation to help the city gear up to build a replacement for the deteriorating auditorium.

The 17-member panel will be charged with developing a plan for moving ahead with the arena project. The panel also will help determine whether the arena would include space for meetings and conferences.

The members, who have not yet been appointed, will include city councilors, the director of Bass Park and representatives from the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce, Convention and Visitors Bureau, Bangor Historic Track Inc., the University of Maine, Penobscot County, and other organizations or groups that are major users of the current facility. Representatives from the general public also will be selected to sit on the panel.

The city and the named organizations will appoint their own members.