Milford shouts down casino 2-1

Here I thought it was spineless politicians looking for a quick and easy way to raise revenue without having to make hard choices. I think I can count on my hand the number of people that think it be a good idea, and those that do immediately balk when you ask if it should go in a town near them. I mean, the residents of East F’in Boston turned down Suffolkdowns. They were supposedly the whole point that this thing got rolling in this state anyways!

People aren’t stupid, and they’ve seen the gravy train only lasts as long as casinos are very rare in a regional economy. With other states in New England looking to follow suit, eventually the revenue streams will dry up because there’s just not enough demand for these things. Then we get all the negative externalities and none of the revenues promised.

Why don’t we build out our high speed data infrastructure instead? Or repair our roads, bridges and ports? Boston is a growing city and has lots of protential, but the 100 year old utilities are not up to the task. Lets invest in our time and taxbreaks in that instead. You know, something that both sinks money into the local economy right away, and builds investments towards the future instead of creating a giant casino service industry that will only be waving money in front of Beacon Hills faces for favors.

A bill that gives voters a choice between higher taxes and casinos that cannot be challenged by the local communities.

Is there enough popcorn for that?

When do Weston, Brookline, Scituate, etc, get their turn to vote/have pressure put on them?

Casinos used to come up every legislative session when I worked at the State House - it just never got anywhere because DiMasi was dead set against it. As I recall, the people who brought it to the table weren't average joes who just wanted to go play blackjack in their own neighborhoods. In every instance I saw, it was a developer who wanted to build and rake in the profits.

The most positive poll I can recall seeing is that something like 60% of voters say they aren't opposed to casinos. There's a big difference between that and actually asking your legislators to change the law. I was out of the State House long before this last, successful bid for legalization but I don't think anyone would categorize the effort as a grass roots one. This was a change that lawmakers favored because they saw dollar signs, plain and simple.