All our politicians now covet the clichéd “seat at the table” where casino decisions will be made. Today 6 DAs got into the act. Also note these delicious quotes from the front page casino story in today’s Boston Globe: "I have some misgivings about a casino in any city, because I think the whole point is to create a resort destination, and I don't think there is a city in Massachusetts that has enough space for that kind of facility …."
– Deval Patrick
"We are still interested in seeing a full entertainment destination location in our city, more specifically at Suffolk Downs. Jobs and economic development in that area depend on it."
– Spokeswoman for Boston Mayor Tom Menino
Doesn’t this have a familiar ring? Before there is an official proposal from the Governor to legalize casinos in Massachusetts, our pols are already circling like sharks to get access to this fresh meat.
Just wait until they have an actual proposal “on the table” to fight over.
But no worries, folks. Led by Deval, “together we can” find a way for our pols to divvy up this new opportunity for tax revenue and patronage. That’s what Deval meant during his campaign, isn’t it?
1 comment:
This was my point all along. With the state now liberally controlled, the appetite for spending (Yay! More fat in the educational cabal! Yay! More hacks!) is zooming to new heights. No wonder the idea of casinos has gone from a ‘cause of all ills’ to a ‘cure for all ills.’ No wonder at all.
In the end, it’s not the casinos stupid. It’s WHERE you put them. My earlier point is to compare Foxwoods with Atlantic City. In absolute fact, Foxwoods succeeds at Atlantic City’s expense. Foxwoods is in a bucolic, wooded setting. Atlantic City is crime-ridden. Where would YOU rather go? So kudos to Deville for seeing this and realizing that just throwing up three casinos is not the ‘cure-all-ills’ solution that he might hope they’d be. You have to make people feel as though they are going to a DESTINATION that, oh, by the way, also has a casino. That’s the way to package it. And Suffolk Downs, I’m sorry, is NOT a ‘destination.’
Meanwhile, while Deville goes back to ‘think about this some more,’ the spending and the hiring and the spending and the hiring will go on and on and on. And in 2009 there will still be no casinos. In 2010 there will still be no casinos. Yet the spending will continue to skyrocket, which is why the ‘easy way out’—tolls—will be astronomical in order to pay for all that administrative fat and layers of hacks that Deville will want to pad his nest with.
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