A quick search reminds one of the brilliance of Rep. Joseph Wagner [D-Chicopee]
who seems to believe the 'best and brightest' are in government. With few exceptions, informed Massachusetts residents would heartily disagree. One could make a successful argument that the 'best and the brightest' were those who had the sense to oppose Gambling legislation.
As a six-member legislative panel finalizes details of the Bay State’s high-stakes casino bill, the House member leading negotiations declared that he’s inclined to oppose any efforts to block lawmakers from working in the casino industry for a year after they leave office.
“It’s my sense that this matter is so important that we should not preclude the best and the brightest from being eligible even if those people would be in government presently,’’ said Democratic Representative Joseph Wagner of Chicopee, according to the State House News Service.
Committee to vote on Wampanoag pact Tuesday
The Casino Compact has been languishing on Beacon Hill since April
The Compact has been languishing in the House since April.
COMMITTEE TO VOTE ON TRIBAL GAMING COMPACT
A favorable vote moves the compact to House and Senate for approval and then to the Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies will vote Tuesday on a gaming compact negotiated between Gov. Deval Patrick and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.
“I’ll be voting in support,” House Chairman Joe Wagner, a Chicopee Democrat who crafted the 2011 gaming law, told the News Service Friday. The compact would then move to the House floor, Wagner said.
The compact, which is not subject to amendment and has been pending before the committee since early April, would need approval from both the House and the Senate before reaching the U.S. Department of Interior for approval.
The tribe would pay the state between 15 percent and 21 percent of gross gaming revenue from a proposed casino in Taunton under a revised compact with the Patrick administration that features different revenue-sharing arrangements depending on whether the tribe has competitors to its proposed casino in southeastern Massachusetts.
No money to state if territory is not exclusive, Hunt comments, KG Urban sues
The compact seeks to protect the tribe's exclusive rights to casino gaming in southeastern Massachusetts by reducing the amount of shared revenue to zero if the state Gaming Commission allows a commercial casino to open in the region. Federal regulators rejected a Mashpee compact last year, saying the state had offered as concessions items that are not in the purview of gaming agreement.
State Rep. Randy Hunt (R-East Sandwich) said, "The more time that passes, the more opportunity these commercial proposals have to put together their numbers. We're going to see an especially stout defense against the compact by the South Coast Reps and Senators."
The Mashpee are seeking to build a casino in Taunton, though delays with the compact and the tribe’s land-in-trust application have prompted the Gaming Commission to open the southeastern region up for commercial casino developers. Those hoping to build a casino in the region are facing a Sept. 30 deadline to submit their initial application along with the $400,000 fee.
KG Urban Enterprises, which is seeking to redevelop an old power plant in New Bedford into a casino, is suing the state arguing that the gaming law provides Indian tribes with an unlawful advantage. The committee vote and Wagner’s intention to support the compact, creates some clarity for the tribe as it seeks to move forward with the various processes toward establishing a casino along routes 140 and 24.
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