Governor: It’s 'too soon' to talk about funding rail with casino revenue
NEW BEDFORD — Gov. Deval Patrick refused this week to commit to trying to fund South Coast rail with casino revenues, even as more local leaders signed on Thursday in support of the proposal.
Patrick is in negotiations with the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe, who want to build a casino in Taunton. By law, he must conclude those negotiations and present a proposed compact to the Legislature by July 31.
“South Coast Rail is a priority for this administration but it is too soon to talk about specific funding for any specific project from any gaming revenue,” said Jason Lefferts, a spokesman for Patrick, in a statement issued Wednesday to The Standard-Times.
The statement was an unenthusiastic response to the letter sent Tuesday by Mayor Jon Mitchell and Rep. William Straus of Mattapoisett, which formally asked Patrick to consider reserving a portion of the revenue from the Taunton casino for the South Coast rail project.
Mitchell and Straus say the traffic caused by the Taunton casino will further isolate Southeastern Massachusetts, hurting the region economically — and on Thursday, the New Bedford City Council voted 9-0 to write to the governor in support of the proposal.
“I think it only makes sense to include that language in the compact,” said Ward 5 Councilor Jane Gonsalves, who sponsored the motion. “Rail is a way to get people to the casino without putting cars on the road.”
Straus said today he found the governor’s statement “disappointing” and maintained that the compact was an “ideal place” to determine how to distribute casino revenue.
“In this case, the transportation improvements which a casino like this would require should
absolutely be a part of the compact,” he said, adding that the project’s lack of financing was its main obstacle.
“I honestly don’t know how you can be a supporter of South Coast rail without trying to identify where the specific funding will come from.”
Typically, states can take 3 to 8 percent of tribal gaming casino revenue, said gaming law expert Steve Light, a director of the Institute for the Study of Tribal Gaming Law & Policy at the University of North Dakota.
The compact would include money for investment in economic development projects, as the casino law requires, but Lefferts made no promises about South Coast rail in particular.
“Broadly speaking, the Expanding Gaming Act requires investing a portion of commercial gaming revenues in projects that support economic development and infrastructure and we are working on a compact for a tribal facility that is consistent with the principles of the Expanding Gaming Act,” he said in the statement.
Studies have determined that for every $1 in Gambling Revenue paid to the state, the cost to taxpayers will be $3 because of increased crime, increased social costs, increased bankruptcies, increased family destruction, and even low wage casino workers receiving taxpayer funded benefits.
That's why Beacon Hill refused to conduct an INDEPENDENT COST ANALYSIS. They didn't want you to know!
For elected officials to commit revenues to another Folly, resembling the Big Dig, defines those Pipe Dreams.
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