The casino change: What NH would become

The casino change: What NH would become

It is ironic that Republicans are pushing casino gambling bills, as casinos would destroy the incentive for legislators to behave like Republicans.

The rationale for building casinos in New Hampshire shifts with the political winds. When education funding was the big issue of the day, casino bills were said to be focused on generating revenue for public schools. When balancing the state budget was a pressing concern, casino bills were supposed to achieve that. Today, everybody's top concerns are jobs and the economy. Guess what the backers of the new casino bill say it is all about?

“This bill is a bi-partisan pro business bill that will create jobs, grant tax relief, and provide the state with an additional revenue source,” reads the House Ways and Means Committee's majority report on House Bill 593. That bill would grant state licenses for two casinos in New Hampshire. If you believe that two slot-machine casinos are going to revive New Hampshire's economy, you're probably a casino industry lobbyist. Actually, even they don't really believe that. It's just what they're paid to say.

House Bill 593 is not about jobs. It's not about the economy. It's about one thing: creating a source of ready revenue for the state. But the state doesn't need that revenue, as some of the very people backing this bill have shown in the past year.

The Legislature's Republican majority did something truly remarkable last summer. It balanced the state budget by cutting spending rather than raising taxes. Legislators proved that the state could balance its books responsibly without raising revenue — and without casino gambling. If we bring in casinos, that work and the philosophy that achieved it will be undone.

Casinos would erase the discipline Republicans just imposed on the state budget, and any incentive to be disciplined in the future. We would go from a state that believes “low taxes are the result of low spending” to one that believes “low taxes are the result of lots of casinos.” It would be a permanent — and negative — change in New Hampshire's culture. All for money we don't need anyway.