Today’s Herald reports that Deval Patrick has left the door quite ajar to allowing slot machines and possibly full-fledged casinos in Massachusetts — a big shift from Mitt Romney, who was unalterably opposed, and one that sets up the first potential collision with Sal DiMasi.
Interesting development.
Please share widely!
I just don’t think the issue of casinos ranks up there with healthcare, more police for the streets, restoring local aid, providing better transportation, and cleaning up the Big Dig. Tabloids like the Herald are often accused of hyping crime stories that affect a handful of individuals, depriving broader issues of public attention. I think that’s what they are doing here.
It’s huge for the tribes, one of which either has or is about to get all the federal recognition it needs to start working toward building a casino; it’s huge for the racetracks, who desperately want slots; and it’s huge for national gambling interests which stand to make millions of dollars.
so I hope this idea quickly gets shot down.
After all, it’s pretty rare that money has any influence in politics or policy. đŸ˜‰
He talked about this before (during the election). Cape Code Times had something to the same effect. He stated that we wan’t opposed to gambling but want to research the economic impact. Does it effect the lottery sales, where more direct money goes to the state, etc. You know what, why not?
is functionally the most regressive tax imaginable.
scratch tickets, etc. who are the buyers?
The lottery is even more offensive because it is the govt that makes profit off the scam. Ugh.
that makes it less offensive. The gov’t gets money from the poor via Keno, and gives it right back via subsidies. In a very simplistic sense, there’s no net change.
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However, when the money goes to Bally’s, it doesn’t come back to the poor, and as a result, they’re poorer.
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Personally, I’d like for MA to keep the slot machine ban, and I’d also like to see the lottery be reduced. I’d start by slashing the advertising budget, and maybe get rid of a handful of the 16+ different scratch-offs. But, it’s not the most important issue out there… hopefully we can work on some of the big stuff in the next few months too.
I’m in favor of any measure that potentially reduces the number of used scratch-off tickets that end up in my front yard and driveway.
the gov’t actively promotes the lottery, knowing full well who it’s marketing to, whereas with casinos etc. it (presumably) wouldn’t be pushing them, it would just allow them to exist, regulate them, and collect some sort of tax revenues.
I understand your point here. But gambling happens, I don’t think the point here is debating if gambling is good or not (not that this is was your point). There is a population of seniors or low income as well as every other demographic that will gamble.
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My question would be what is the breakdown of fixed income and other demographics that will go to a casino. I don’t know the economic impact or pretend to know, but I think we need to find out.
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There are two Peter Pan buses I see ready to go to Foxwoods every morning on my ride to work. I see it as lost income for our state.
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Probably not a popular point of view.
The amount of money Massachusetts residents drop at Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun is tremendous. They will continue to drive to Connecticut unless there’s a casino in Massachusetts. I say build the casino in Massachusetts and keep the revenue and jobs in the state.
have gotten tips from me. I’d be just as happy to give them to girls in Massachusetts. This is not to mention the gas taxes lost to MA when I fill up to drive home, and the meals tax for when I have lunch, and the room tax for when I spend the night, and the sales tax the non gambling members of my family spend shopping.
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I’ve been to Foxwoods every day after Thanksgiving since I was 17, and plenty of other times besides. I usually take the money from the Indians, but pay a lot of it right back to the CT government.
Actually cities & towns get ALL of the revenue from the Lottery – nearly $1 Billion this year!
Except, the lottery takes from the poor, takes a cut, gives back to the towns, which take a cut, then give to the poor, or not.
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Other than that, it’s just like Robin Hood, only not.
Which is a deeply shrouded secret, pertaining to the jobs there.
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And of course, the lottery money is dispensed according to the flawed Ed formula (did you know we voted the Lottery in because THEN there would be an unending stream of money to education, and we would never have school aid prblems again?) which only insures that the rich (towns) get richer, and the towns that get stiffed on the Ed formula still get crumbs.
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For instance, there are towns in Mass. like Dighton without a single lottery agent or license – too, too low class – which get Lottery funds! For what? While a resort town like Yarmouth, which sells MILLION of tickets to tourists gets bupkis – you can tell by comparing the commission on prizes vs. the lottery aid to see that once again, we are an exporter of cash to the truly disadvantaged. While we get to cope with the litter. /snark.
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This is false. The lottery aid is dispensed according to this formula, taken from the MA lottery website:
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It is strictly based on property values, not demographics (which is what Chapter 70 aid uses).
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Why should state aid just go to the communities in which it was collected? That completely ignores the concept that some communities need the aid while others don’t. The current formula tries to balance the differing property values between communities — it needs to go a lot further, to address needs in addition to ability to pay.
Since 1993! It was supposed to be revisited in 2000, and hasn’t been done yet. PROPERTY VALUES are now the bigest controlling factor in Ch. 70, which is why you have some area getting 10% or more from the state as their ed budget. And please note, median income, i.e., ABILITY TO PAY, is missing from this in favor of property values. Tell that to somebody who bought their Cape house in 1947, and are now living on Social Security – unless you think them ‘overhoused’?
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The formula you outline IS the ed formula, minus the per pupil base.
Peter, you’re so wrong on this one that it hurts.
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Have you ever heard of the “foundation budget”? Do you know how it is determined? It is drawn up based on the types of students that you have in your schools.
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Here’s a link to some details on the Foundation Budget. I quote:
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The categories are:
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It gets a lot more complicated after this. I’m not 100% sure on how this exactly works, but they figure out a town’s ability to pay and if their ability lies below the foundation, the budget is brought up to foundation level with Chapter 70 money.
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There’s a wage adjustment factor in there too — Boston gets more money because the salaries are higher than the Berkshires.
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I think there are some major flaws here. For one, most successful school systems spend way above their foundation budgets. That might be due to the foundation numbers being calcluated in 1994 and increased for inflation. But if twice foundation is what Cambridge spends, then why is foundation “good enough” for Holyoke or Springfield?
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There is also the “additional assistance” category of aid, which is left over from pre-Chapter 70 days. Some communities get a lot of this — look at Somerville, or Cambridge, or even Boston. It was somehow related to education, but now it’s a slush fund for certain towns that had strong representation when other towns had this category eliminated.
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I would also say that the demographic piece is understated. Sure, a couple of additional low-income students in your class might mean that you need an extra $2,200 per student in assistance. But what happens when your school is 90% low-income, like several in Springfield? Concentrations of poverty bring very unique problems, the additional monies needed are not at all linear.
Casinos are likely a economic winner for Massachusetts, so it’s good to hear that Deval is open to this. (Figuring out how to deal with traffic if the casino was on the Cape is a problem, but not fatal).
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The general gambling debate is one of the more interesting ones, IMO. It’s one of the places where many partisans on the left and right agree — the right for religious, “moral” reasons and the left because of supposed ill social effects. We’ll see where this goes, but hopefully MA residents will someday have the chance to gamble in a licenced and regulated casino if they so choose.
I’m a little surprised about this, because Patrick seemed to be against casinos in the primary debate held in Agawam. Gabrielli was pushing for this, and Patrick said something to the effect that the people in the casinos usually couldn’t afford to be there.
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The big problem with casino ventures that have been pushed in the past is that they are proposed for depressed cities like Springfield — often pushed by strong interests who have bought up a lot of cheap land that could house such a venture.
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That would be absolutely foolish policy to put casinos where they are most convenient to the poor. The poor already pay a disproportionate amount of the general government aid that comes back to cities and towns (“Lottery, beano, and charity games” is what the cherry sheets are funded from).
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I would say to the people that believe that taxes stifle an economy that the casino does so even more. It “redistributes” monies — based on luck, not need — and takes a piece of the pie and ships it to some out-of-state gaming conglomerate. No value added there.
it doesn’t have a positive effect on the money multiplier in an area, meaning that a dollar spent there recirculates less around the community…mostly because it disappears into a black hole. Also, the jobs created are mostly low wage service gigs…the Bushies have grown those jobs substantially in their six years in office to the detriment of our nation.
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How about investments in alternative energy? Now, there’s a starter for me for both economic development and national security.
I cn’t very well be against something I would go to if it were open.
To quote Groucho, “I’d never belong to a club that would have someone like me for a member.” Seems similar, somehow.
I like gambling too, which is why I’m glad I have to drive three hours to the nearest casino.
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And I say this as someone who’s always made money every time he’s gambled (small sample size).
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That said, I might actually prefer casinos to just having slots – slots are the most rigged of all gambling games (except for state lotteries).
I will never forget the year Menino misunderstimated the Boston schools, got what he asked for from the state, and then USED THE ‘SURPLUS’ TO GIVE THE BOSTON CITY COUNCIL A RAISE!
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And again – find me median INCOME as an indicator of ability to pay, rather than VALUE of property.