SHNS Needs to get Facts Straight

From today's State House News Service:

STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, SEPT. 10, 2009……Less than four months before a voter-approved ban on dog racing is scheduled to wipe out 1,300 jobs at racetracks and affiliated businesses, lawmakers on Thursday pleaded with their colleagues to permit dog racing for two more years or allow tracks to continue wagering without a live product.

According to whom? There aren't anywhere near 1,300 jobs in the racetrack industry in Massachusetts. Not even close. I'd be shocked if there were 300 jobs in the industry at this point.

So who's propagating these lies and distortions?

Reps. David Flynn and James Fagan and Sens. Joan Menard, Thomas Kennedy and Marc Pacheco, all of whom represent the area around Raynham-Taunton Greyhound Park, said that 1,300 workers face unemployment come January, when the dog racing ban takes effect.

My question for the Reps and Senators, where the heck have you been while the dog track industry has been telling its workers not to accept state help and training to get new jobs? It would be awfully hard for the industry and its political supporters to be crying foul if sad stories of workers weren't at stake, right?

Bottom line: the people of this state voted, by a sizable margin, to get rid of the dog track industry. The people who supported that ballot initiative were beyond reasonable for the workers in the industry, by creating a 14 month gap before the bill would take effect, leaving plenty of time for people to find new work. Funding was also put aside for retraining, but that retraining was largely refused, because the industry thought it would hurt their efforts in thwarting the will of the voters. Maybe if Pacheco, Flynn and Friends were a little more worried about the workers and less about the industry's stakeholders, there would be no worries about the jobs anymore.

Track Defeat: Controlling the Dialogue

Ever since the dogs tracks lost on Question 3, it's been a race to control the dialogue in the media, with the tracks trying to gain any foothold on the upcoming legislative season. Today's Cape Cod Times has two key stories. First, instead of hearing about all the happy grassroots volunteers who spent countless hours trying to protect animals in this state, we get to hear all about the poor track workers, complete with already-discredited numbers on the impact. The second story is on the slots and how the race tracks are pushing them, in great part through Representative Flynn and Senator Pacheco, Raynham's representation.

Readers will note that Racinos are about the worst possible thing that could happen to this state, creating no new revenue, bringing in little overall, opening the doorways to full-scale resort casinos that will put the racinos out of business, anyway (but not before Carney and Sarkis make tens of millions, stiffing the state with casinos that we can never tax after the racinos are gone). Does any of this sound like a good idea to anyone?

Finally, everyone should realize that 56% of this state voted for banning professional greyhound racing. No matter how hard the media hugs the industry, they can't change the fact that in almost every city and town, in all but a few small pockets of this state, greyhound racing is universally detested. The people have spoken, loud and clear. It's time the industry gets used to it and moves to something completely different, or sells the land to someone who will.

Racino's Legislative Death?

Is this the last nail in the coffin? It's sure looking like it:

A bill that would have made it possible for the state's four racetracks, including Raynham Taunton Greyhound Park, to offer slot machines is dead for this year.

David L. Flynn, D-Bridgewater, said the Senate has refused to allow action on the measure to legalize slots at the four race tracks.

If this is true, it'll seriously make my day.

Also, score one for Sue Tucker.

And in the House:

House Speaker Sal DiMasi gave little hope that the slots bill would advance before the July 31st deadline....

“That’s actually in limbo,” DiMasi said.... “There’s a difference of opinion as to where it goes.”

Obviously, in Speaker DiMasi's House, it goes exactly where it should: no where.

(Take that, Joan.)

Crossposted at BMG.

Casino Hearing Dec. 18

The first casino hearing on Governor Patrick's bill will be on December 18th, though it's not "intended to be the major forum for Patrick's bill," according to Speaker DiMasi. The Joint Committee on Bonding, Capital Expenditures and State Assets, chaired by Representative David Flynn, will host the hearing. Flynn's angry Governor Patrick's bill didn't include anything for the state's race tracks, boo hoo. All kidding aside, race-track complaints isn't exactly a unique form of complaining on Beacon Hill nowadays, including my own State Senator who (sadly) voted for slots at race tracks in the past, but isn't sure he'll vote for Governor Patrick's casino proposal as it stands.

However, I haven't even come to the good part about Flynn's hearing. Screw having honest brokers be invited to the hearing, he has specific people in mind to invite already.

The Legislature's Bonding Committee is inviting a number of gambling bigwigs, from Donald Trump to Harrah's CEO Gary Loveman to casino developer Richard Fields, who controls Suffolk Downs.

Others on the early invitation list include Gov. Deval Patrick's administration, district attorneys, major state unions who favor casinos, track owners and the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, which has been skeptical of Patrick's casino numbers.

Wow. So far, the pro-casino to anti-casino count is 7:1, with one group of people unknown (the district attorneys). Notably missing from that list is any independent economic experts from our state's leading universities, any college professors who have spent years studying the economics of how casinos impact communities, especially economically, or any pro-and-con community leaders who have dealt with casinos entering their backyards in the past. For example, I'm curious to hear more from some Atlantic City small business experts, where restaurants, clubs and other similar establishments saw a the number of their establishments go from over 225 before casinos to under 60 after them.

The fact of the matter is we don't need the Don(ald) coming into town, making this a media circus. Furthermore, none of us should trust a damn thing the CEO of Hurrah would say. He's not exactly going to be an honest broker.

No one can deny that casinos raise a lot of revenue, what is in question is just how much of that revenue is new. The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston estimates that up to 75% of casino revenue is just redirected from other sectors of the economy, which would mean local businesses within at least a 50 mile radius of a casino would be anything from significantly hurt to crippled. Money in your pockets, after all, is a net sum game: if you spend it somewhere, you can't spend it anywhere else. Until we address the real issues here, how casinos will impact our communities both socially and especially economically, then we can't green light or push forward any slot machines or Class 3 gambling in this state. There just isn't enough information yet and, judging by the early list of guests, Representative David Flynn's hearing is going to do nothing to change that fact.