The casino industry has spent $250 million dollars on lobbying over the past decade in the pursuit of personal gain rather than the public good. That special and narrow interest has been heard. Now, we, as citizens, need to be heard. And our concerns need to be heeded. Before we take the grave step of introducing casino gambling to Massachusetts, we must undertake a cost/benefit analysis for our state and educate our neighbors about the grave costs of introducing casino gambling.
But that cost/benefit analysis cannot simply be measured in economic costs alone. We must also consider what we value as a community. While we must commit ourselves to creating jobs and while monetary costs and benefits must be measured, we must not lose sight of what we treasure most in life. We must ask ourselves if casino gambling is worth it even at the expense of those among us who are most vulnerable. We must ask ourselves if casino low wage jobs are worth witnessing the lives of our neighbors destroyed by gambling addiction. We must ask ourselves what will casino gambling cost to our state pride. Do we want to raise our children in a state with casinos? How will casino gambling compromise Massachusetts as a beacon of hope and inspiration around the world? And why when Massachusetts has such a rich tradition of innovation do we need to desperately reach for a perceived quick fix that will cost us both immediately and so dearly down the road?
Through City Year and Be the Change, Inc., I’ve worked in our neighborhoods and communities for over twenty years. I know people are hurting. Too many of us have lost our jobs, homes, retirement savings and our children’s dream of a college education. We need jobs. And while casino gambling sounds enticing and has been presented as a quick fix, it’s not the answer for Massachusetts. We need to get back to basics: invest in good, high paying jobs, improve U.S. productivity, increase savings, reduce debt, strengthen families, educate our children, and invent more products and services to export.
Massachusetts gave birth to the very idea of America. People come here from all over the world to walk our Freedom Trail, view the USS Constitution, visit the site of the Boston Tea Party, Bunker Hill and Lexington and Concord. People are drawn to our world-renowned universities, our hospitals, and our clean energy and biotech startups.
Massachusetts is the birthplace of public education, the abolitionist movement, the suffragist movement, and so many innovations including the first telephone call, first typewriter, first computer, first subway, first liquid fuel rocket and first World Series champions.
Once we introduce casinos, there’s no turning back. We will no longer be solely the state that gave birth to our nation and our country’s capital of innovation. We will also be a casino gambling destination.
In this time of economic struggle, we must work to create secure, well paying jobs that respect our citizens and take advantage of our leadership in the healthcare, biotech, clean energy industries, and higher education, and not low paying jobs that have a negative impact on our social welfare. Casino workers are among the worst-paid in the U.S., with the median, hourly wage for casino workers at $6.34. Every dollar invested in casinos costs taxpayers $3 to cover the costs of the social problems associated with casinos in the local community. Among those who live within 50 miles of a casino, more than 1 out of 20 people become a gambling addict. In areas with casinos, crime increases by 10% and personal bankruptcies jump 18%-42%. Gambling does not pump-prime the economy. Instead, gambling siphons money away from the traditional consumer economy, where an economic “multiplier effect” triples the value of every dollar spent by creating jobs that supply goods and services.
We can, instead, create jobs by supporting small business, our greatest source of job creation. We can create new jobs by implementing a new job hiring tax credit. We can allow small businesses to have $50,000 write offs. We can waive SBA fees and allow 50% depreciation in the first year of new plants and equipment. We must also fully fund the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act which will create 250,000 new jobs, helping to educate our children, conserve the environment, support and engage our veterans, promote public health and fight poverty.
I believe it is the responsibility of government to protect citizens from practices that threaten public health and safety. If I have the privilege of serving as Senator, I will propose the creation of a National Gambling Regulatory Commission. Casino gambling raises important federal issues of public safety, public health and consumer protection. We must avoid a race to the bottom whereby because Connecticut has casinos, Massachusetts gets casinos, then New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maine and Vermont will want them.
We are Americans. In tough times, we don’t compromise who we are to meet our greatest challenges. We draw strength from who we are to forge progress. This is Massachusetts. We don’t need to trade an increase in social ills for low paying jobs. We have proven throughout our history that anything is possible. We can innovate and invent and create jobs, further our values and dreams, and write the next great chapter for our state, the birthplace of American democracy.
I urge the Legislature to reject casino gambling in Massachusetts. And I urge all citizens of our Commonwealth who share my grave concerns about how casinos will change our state forever to join a growing citizens movement – the United to Stop Slots in Massachusetts Campaign – by logging on to www.uss-mass.org. Together we can make our voices heard and preserve our states storied heritage for our children and grandchildren.
I greatly appreciate your review of my testimony.
Sincerely,
Alan Khazei
NOTE: Click here to sign our petition. Say NO to casinos in MA: http://www.alanforsenate.com/p…
but the reality is that the Commonwealth sold their soul a long time ago with the Lottery. Alan, we’ve already legalized predatory gambling; in fact, the Commonwealth runs the rackets. We are the mob; just go into any convenience store for proof. I’m certainly opposed to casinos, but you better pick a better argument than that, unless you want to also outlaw the Lottery Commission.
And winding down
lotterycasino revenue would be a tough sell right at the moment, but it seems to me that when revenue increases, the state would do well to contract the state lottery. How would I do it?<
p>1. No advertising with out-of-state companies. That means no ClearChannel, etc. At the very least, the advertising money raised by MA citizens ought to be providing MA citizens jobs at the highest rate possible.
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p>2. No more linking the lottery with professional sports. No Red Sox tickets, etc. Pro sports has enough problems; linking it with gambling, even tangentially, should be verboten.
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p>3. Freeze on “new” games. No new scratch off ticket games. There are over 20 now (minus (2)), and no new ones.
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p>4. Gradually phase out the ones we have. Every three months, eliminate one game.
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p>Extra Credit: Eliminate Keno. Start by denying any new Keno applications. Then, eliminate it in any place that serves alcohol (bars and pubs), on the grounds that alcohol clouds judgment. Then, reduce the time of turnover from every 15 minutes to every 30 minutes, to once an hour. From there, whittle away or eliminate completely.
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p>The thing is, all four of the scratch-off steps could be done and it would be a one day story. The reduction of advertising with out of state companies might play reasonably well. Decoupling pro sports and the lottery might be considered justified too. As for (3) and (4), just do it without fanfare or even a press conference.
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p>The reduction wouldn’t happen all at once, and don’t forget that due to governor and legislative caps in the second half of the 2000s that have been eliminated, the amount paid out directly to cities and towns has actually gone up about 50%. There’s no reason why the state can’t freeze that out, ratchet it down, or supplement it with revenue from another source instead.
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p>And the other source would be?
and the other source will be from just about every other source — sales tax, income tax, fees, etc.
However, it is also a known fact that Massachusetts has a structural budget problem that would have resulted in revenue shortfalls no matter what the state of the economy, and an economic recovery is not going to haul our chestnuts out of the fire.
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p>I’ve posted many other times on this topic, so won’t repeat myself, other than to summarize my observations that higher state tax rates will help to create jobs and stimulate our economy.
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p>So, rather than sitting around passively awaiting the arrival of good times, we should be aggressively moving to help create good jobs, as Alan mentioned.
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p>An increase in the income tax rate (with a corresponding increase in the personal deduction and other measures to hold harmless those in lower brackets), and extending the sales tax to more services are progressive ways to increase our revenue base and save or even add jobs that are vitally needed in this Commonwealth.
that increasing the income tax rate will do anything other than convert our high income earners to stay another month down in Florida to switch their resident status. Or just to shift operations out of MA entirely.
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p>A progressive way to balance the budget for sure, but you have to take into account that people act in their own economic self-interest (I know, I have many high income progressive clients who do the same, however they post on the Internet). Come on, if you’re contemplating buying that new computer/TV/whatever, are you going to go to the Best Buy in MA, or maybe toodle over to the Best Buy lurking in Nashua/Salem? If you’re spending a thousand bucks, think that $62.50 savings for the same price will counteract extra time or gas costs for driving an extra 20 miles. This is a tiny state, not Montana.
Sure, people could move somewhere else. But then they use less services here. Net wash?
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p>Not the place for a lengthy discussion, so I’ll just offer a couple of anecdotes. Before I do, let me recommend the MBPC website as a good source of objective information about the Massachusetts tax system and comparisons with other states. There is, for example, their tax primer. And, a literature survey supporting my idea that higher state taxes lead to economic betterment.
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p>I live in the Berkshires, and spend a lot of time in the Pioneer Valley, with frequent trips to the eastern part of the state (Worcester area, even as far as Boston!). Gas prices in the Pioneer Valley, in my observation, are the lowest in the Commonwealth, probably because it’s smack dab in the middle of the state, where there is less opportunity for drivers to fill up in other states. Gas prices around my house are at least ten to fifteen cents higher than they are in the Springfield area. The reason for this, in my opinion, is not that it costs so much more to transport fuel the few miles west, but that we live so close to NY state, which has a much higher gas tax. So, the oil companies are playing a tax arbitrage of their own — why should they give the windfall of a lower tax in the Bay State to the consumer?!
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p>Second anecdote: I have a new grandson in NC, and we had a wonderful family vaca on the beach this summer. NC, as you may know, is one of those states reputed to be attracting Mass. residents to move away — not sure if that’s true, but if it is, it sure isn’t because of taxes. Their sales tax is 7.75% on non-food items and 2% on food. Their (progressive) income tax is also 7.75% for the tax bracket that would apply to most families, I think. So why don’t all those NC folks move to Massachusetts, where taxes are so much lower? đŸ˜‰
many states with these progressively higher rates also typically piggyback off of the Federal AGI. Given that MA does not provide for mortgage interest, property tax, or charitable deductions, are we talking apples to apples in these comparisons? If I’m paying 7% with maybe 25% of my income not being subject to tax due to deductions, think I’m better off than 5.3% on all of my income.
Reason #1: State-sponsored predatory gambling exploded over the last twenty years in America not because it was believed to be good public policy on its merits. But rather, the dominant argument has been and continues to be citizens were “going out of state” to visit casinos so we might as well legalize them in our state to allow people to lose their money here.
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p>What served as the starting gun for this nationwide race to the bottom? The passage of the Indian Gaming Rights Act by Congress in 1988 which allowed federally recognized tribes to obtain whatever form of gambling was legal in a state. These tribes became bankrolled by millionaire casino operators who then began an intense effort to exploit state laws around charity gambling (like what happened in CT). Casino capitalism had officially begun its takeoff.
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p>Shortly after that, Iowa’s state government, looking for jobs and public revenues in the middle of a down economy and concerned about the growing threat of neighboring Minnesota tribal casinos, pushed through a riverboat casino proposal backed by gambling interests in 1990. Ever since, this three-part “they’re going out-of-state”, “jobs” and “revenues” story line has been relentlessly repeated in almost every state in America, fueled by the predatory gambling trade’s limitless spending on lobbying and advertising. In 2008 alone, the predatory gambling trade spent $260 million on just nine referendums held around the country.
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p>Reason #2: Only the federal government can stop the predatory gambling trade – states are too dependent on the revenue coming from predatory gambling to do it for themselves. There are more than 800,000 electronic gambling machines in America- 1 for every 395 Americans- and there is literally no transparency about how these machines work, the business model behind them and the predatory marketing used to promote them. A MIT Professor has called electronic gambling machines “a high tech version of loaded dice” which means for you non-EGM users out there, the machines are cheating people. Congress held high profile hearings investigating whether millionaire athletes were cheating at baseball by using steroids. How can they not hold the same kind of hearings about a product that has been charged with swindling millions of Americans?
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p>Reason #3: Predatory gambling betrays the American Promise. One of the Constitution’s most vital missions established clearly in its preamble is “to promote the general welfare.” State-sponsored predatory gambling violates this mission by engaging in a practice of creating addicted, out-of-control and heavily indebted people in the name of funding public services. It’s taxation by exploitation.
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p>State-sponsored predatory gambling, which includes state lotteries and casinos, also plays a major role in trapping millions of Americans in debt. During the Great Depression, government leaders challenged Americans to save money by promoting savings bonds and it enabled people to accumulate the capital they needed to live the American Dream. Today during the Great Recession, the government’s daily voice is lottery advertising, encouraging people to spend their money on virtually worthless lottery tickets.
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p>Leaders like FDR led America through turbulent times by inspiring us to hope for the best and then challenging us to go work for it. They called on us to invest in a common purpose. It’s the same kind of spirit we need today, not only in the U.S. Senate, but at all levels of government.
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p>Les Bernal
…and it figures he’d have plenty of support from the wing nut base of BMG!