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Thursday, November 21, 2013

Time for Change?

Those of us who testified, listened to the SHAM HEARINGS, PHONY DEBATES and watched the SLICK LOBBYISTS..... 



...we watched the backroom deals that excluded the media and the public....



....little egos were stroked ......


The Corporate Media mostly shirked its responsibility rather RISK future Ad Revenue....except for a few notable exceptions, becoming nothing more than CHEERLEADERS....



If you're not sickened, maybe you weren't watching.....and again the Gam[bl]ing Commission holds a public hearing when the public can't attend and on a Jewish Holiday!

Stunning!


Are you as sick to death of hypocrites like DeLeo, Patrick, and Crosby as I am? They know the system isn't working. They know the voters of Plainville got screwed by the gambling commission. But, clearly, as long as there isn't a casino in their town, they don't care.

The governor has ignored our entreaties — he never even acknowledged the joint letter from voters in Plainville. Chairman Crosby and his commission refused to finish vetting Penn National before our vote and decided that six days was plenty of time for voters to learn about a new applicant; he refused to give Plainville the same consideration he gave Milford, resulting in a blatant denial of equal protection for our town. (But, hey, it's not his town, so why should he care?) And Speaker DeLeo's argument in support of casinos in anybody's town but his own is specious, at best.

PLEASE attend the December 4th hearing in Plainville from 4 to 6PM at the Wood School. I know it's at a perfectly terrible time for most citizens to attend, as well as falling on a Jewish holiday (they'd NEVER hold a hearing on Christmas). But, the gambling commission is FAR more interested in Penn National's convenience than ours. We MUST make them listen to our concerns, at this hearing or in the courts or both.

If you can't attend the hearing, please send your comments to mgccomments@state.ma.us.


FYI:



LIKE PATRICK, DeLEO WOULD OPPOSE CASINO IN HIS HOMETOWN

By Matt Murphy
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

STATE HOUSE, NOV. 20, 2013….First it was Gov. Deval Patrick who said he would not support a casino in his second hometown of Richmond.

But as voters in communities around the state continue to reject casinos within their borders, House Speaker Robert DeLeo says he also would vote against a casino in his town of Winthrop if one were proposed there.

“I don’t know about Winthrop. Winthrop doesn’t have enough space, so let me just put that right out there. If Winthrop was in another location and we had enough space, I’d say so. We’re having difficulty right now just trying to figure out where to put a high school and a middle school combination, but obviously I would be supportive if I live in a place with proper space,” DeLeo said Wednesday.

Voters in Milford on Tuesday night rejected a proposed Foxwoods casino off Interstate 495, following similar negative votes in East Boston and Palmer this month.

“What I envisioned was when we wrote the legislation, and obviously it came to a final vote, was that any community that did not want a casino wasn’t going to have a casino, no matter what . . . This has proven us correct,” DeLeo said.

DeLeo was a force behind the expanded gaming law that turns two-years-old on Friday, but he also has an appreciation for the not-in-my-back-yard sentiment that has scuttled a number of casino proposals.

“If I lived in a place that had enough space for a casino, and quite frankly there were concerns about traffic that they didn’t address, if there were concerns about them working with our local communities in terms of about police presence and fire presence that they didn’t work out then no, I would not be supportive. The concept itself yes, but with the proviso though that they would have to work out some of the details of concern to the local communities,” DeLeo said.

Supporters of a proposed ballot question repealing the 2011 casino law reported late Wednesday that they had filed more than 90,000 signatures locally by a 5 p.m. deadline. Initiative petition sponsors need at least 68,911 certified signatures to advance in the process toward the 2014 ballot.

Repeal the Casino Deal noted West Springfield and Foxborough had also turned down casino plans.

Voters in Everett, Taunton and Springfield have voted to host casinos in their cities.

Attorney General Martha Coakley has ruled the casino law repeal proposal is not eligible for the ballot, but repeal opponents hope the Supreme Judicial Court will rule that it is eligible. Noting applicants have invested in the legal process of applying for casino licenses, analysts in the attorney general’s office say contract rights are considered property and may not be "taken" by an initiative petition.

“Like all our battles, this one was hard fought and we’re not certain of the outcome but we’re hopeful we have enough to move ahead,” John Ribeiro, chairman of the Repeal the Casino Deal Committee, said in a statement.

[Michael Norton contributed reporting]

END
11/20/2013


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