That MGM offered self-defeating message that repeal is anti-business is simply false. The crushing impact of state subsidized multi-national billion dollar monopolies with special advantages and protections is the attack on businesses and the regional economies of Massachusetts.
Please note that the SJC matter has nothing to do with business climate and economic development. The merging of the two is a ploy to distract from the legal technicalities of the court case.
REPEAL THE CASINO DEAL! The only sensible solution.
Casino repeal goes to Mass. SJC
(NECN: Peter Howe, Boston) - The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has already awarded a license for a slots parlor in Plainville, the Plainridge Park Casino, and appears to be weeks away from awarding MGM Springfield the western Massachusetts casino license.
Monday morning, the state’s highest court took up oral arguments over an important question: Is it too late for voters to get a chance to say "no?"
Attorney General Martha Coakley has ruled, on technical grounds involving state constitutional protections around private property rights, the referendum to repeal the 2011 law authorizing up to three destination resort casinos and a slots parlor should not be allowed on the Nov. 4 state ballot.
MGM Springfield President Michael Mathis warned that his company is already thinking about suing the state if the question is allowed on the ballot and gets approved.
"I’m very hopeful that our legal argument would prevail, but certainly, we would preserve all our legal rights, as we would have to" if the question wins, Mathis said.
What’s before the Supreme Judicial Court is an extraordinarily knotty set of questions about just what kinds of "property rights" casino applicants and casino license winners have, and at what stage in the process, and what legally can be voted away by voters at the ballot box.
Justices including Margot Botsford and Ralph Gants seemed to struggle with Coakley’s office’s logic that casino license holders could have their licenses revoked at any time – but companies that are in the process of applying for a casino license have a property right that can’t, under the state constitution, be removed without compensation.
Justice Robert J. Cordy, in his questioning, appeared to express astonishment at the idea companies could invest millions in seeking and winning casino licenses and then have those licenses suddenly revoked. Of course, court experts always warn that justice’s questions from the bench can’t reliably be taken as indicators of how they’ll ultimately rule.
John Ribeiro, the head of ballot question committee Repeal The Casino Deal, said he was encouraged by how the questioning went.
"By the way I read it, I think we're going to be on the ballot in November. If common sense prevails, we'll be on the ballot in November," said Ribeiro.
Former Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, who has crusaded for years against casinos as a predatory industry that would be bad for the state’s economy and culture, explained what he said was the more narrow finding the SJC should reach.
"People have a right to vote," he said. "That's all this is about. It's not about the policy arguments. It's about whether people have a right to vote on this very important issue."
Chief Justice Roderick J. Ireland, in a question from the bench, made clear that members of the court have heard some business-community leaders’ arguments that a repeal would hurt the state's business climate.
"What you do you say," Ireland asked, "to the argument that has been made, if you prevail, this will have a chilling effect on all businesses in the future that are thinking about engaging in activities in this state?"
Casino foes outside court said polls show more and more Bay Staters recognize casinos just drain dollars from other businesses, especially entertainment and hospitality businesses, and create a wave of social problems like gambling addiction, personal bankruptcy, family strife, divorce, and suicides.
"The more people learn about casinos, the less likely they are to have one nearby," Ribeiro said. "What this is all about is giving all the people in the state the right to vote on this."
With videographer Christopher D. Garvin and video editor Mike Bellwin
http://www.necn.com/05/05/14/Casino-repeal-goes-to-Mass-SJC/landing_business.html?blockID=866014&feedID=11106
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