Mass. Senate Hearing on Casinos Draws Hundreds of Supporters Opponents

BOSTON/State House – Supporters and opponents of a proposed Senate bill that would allow 3 resort-style casinos in Massachusetts packed a Senate Ways and Means Committee hearing at the 600-seat Gardner Auditorium on Tuesday June 8th and listened to hours of testimony from both perspectives. Coming on the heels of a House casino bill passed in April which calls for 2 casinos and slot machines at the racetracks the hearing gave advocates on both sides of the debate a chance to present their testimony before a final vote. A sea of union workers and backers came out in orange shirts from the Massachusetts Coalition for Jobs and Growth that read “Casinos Now! Jobs Now!” UNITE HERE Local 26 members wore red shirts with the slogan “Casinos + Unions = Good Jobs.” Gregory Bialecki Governor Deval Patrick’s Secretary of Economic Development testified in favor of the bill which he noted is similar to one the governor tried to implement in 2007. Sen. Joan Menard (D-Fall River) also praised the bill calling it the best she has seen in her years of filing proposals on behalf of casinos. Menard’s co-testifier Fall River Mayor William Flanagan pointed to his city’s severe economic struggles as reason to support casino building in his city and throughout the Commonwealth. “The city of Fall River has the highest unemployment rate in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts ” he said. “As a mayor it’s becoming tougher and tougher to create jobs for people. We have an opportunity to drastically reduce unemployment.” Flanagan repeatedly referred to numerous economic benefits that he sees in the resort casino proposal presented by the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. The mayor also commended both the House and Senate bills for including “funding to be put aside for people with addiction problems from gaming.” From the labor side a 4-person testimony also made a strong case for casinos. Teamsters Local 25 President Sean O’Brien appealed to the Senate Committee to recognize the need to expand casinos and put union members back to work. “When you look over my shoulder and you look at the fear in my members’ eyes you also have to look at the hope and the opportunity ” O’Brien said. “We need to make the tough decisions.” Referring to opponents Mass. AFL-CIO President Robert Haynes said that no amount of information and statistics can “trump a job.” “There are lot of sophisticated well-meaning educated people in opposition ” Haynes said. “I represent people who are regular folks who go to work every day pay their taxes and want nothing but a job.” Haynes went on to state the union’s support for toughened crime measures related to increased gambling but he claimed the benefits outweigh the costs. “Yeah there’s a downside ” he said. “Let’s do the upside.” Outnumbered opponents of the bill held to their positions which included criticism of expanding gambling addiction. Rep. Matthew Patrick (D-Falmouth) recounted his own experience with the negative impacts of gambling. “I’m here to respectively represent the people the families that are going to be negatively impacted by this bill ” Patrick said. “I am the son of a compulsive gambler and I want you to know that it’s no fun growing up in a family where you have a non-productive member. We keep talking about jobs but we’re trading those jobs for something. Don’t forget that. We’re going to destroy families.” Rep. Jamie Eldridge (D-Acton) raised concerns about “increased crime rates and public safety costs” as well as the impact on local businesses. Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz (D-Boston) recognized the workers gathered in support of casinos but she criticized the legislation as “a business model that simply does not work” and a “a fancy way of placing a tax on the poor.” Frank Dunphy President of CasinoFacts.org a casino opposition group based in Middleboro said the opponent coalition expected the strong showing from unions. He believes that there is an exaggerated emphasis on job creation resulting from casino expansion that shows a lack of research. “I started out unbiasedly to see what [casinos] would do to my community ” Dunphy said. “It didn’t take long in the research to find that the negatives far outweigh the positives. It will bring jobs [but] if you look at the U.S. Department of Labor statistics 83% of the jobs in the casino pay about $9.50/hr. Not sustainable jobs to feed a family. The amount has been overstated.” Dunphy cited an oft-referenced study by Clyde Barrow Director of the Center for Policy Analysis at UMass Dartmouth that he sees as a flawed attempt to promote the gambling industry in Massachusetts. The results of the study which show a large number of Massachusetts residents driving to out-of-state casinos was mentioned by Senator Stanley Rosenberg D-Amherst a supporter of the proposal. The Senate is expected to unveil their version of the casino bill this Friday. Bookmark/Search this post with: Delicious Digg StumbleUpon Reddit Newsvine Facebook Google Yahoo Technorati