Now this explains it...the missing piece!

DeLeo opening casino door to tribes
***************
By Paul McMorrow
Special to the Boston Globe
May 10, 2010
***************

 ROBERT DeLEO wants to bring legalized gambling to Massachusetts. He wants two casinos and slots at four racing tracks, and right now, it looks like he’s going to get his wish.
And, potentially, a lot more. In DeLeo’s rush to appease the building trades and carve out some action for the two racetracks in his district, the speaker of the House is setting the table for a gambling expansion in Massachusetts that has the potential to be far broader than anything he’s pitching. He’s opening the door to new gambling halls on Martha’s Vineyard and the Cape, in Middleborough and Fall River. It’s also something neither he, nor anyone else on Beacon Hill, can control.


Forget, for a second, all the reasons we know we should worry about legalized gambling — its regressive nature, the way it cannibalizes money that would otherwise be spent at local businesses, the negligible benefits it offers strained government budgets, the staggering social and regulatory costs. None of that has swayed DeLeo, or anybody else on Beacon Hill whose opinion actually matters these days. Two years ago, the Legislature was debating whether to legalize casinos at all; now the body is just wondering how many to greenlight.

The Mashpee Wampanoag and the Aquinnah, the state’s two federally recognized Native American tribes, have each expressed serious interest in owning a gleaming gambling hall. They haven’t been able to follow through on those urges because, legally, they can’t.


The tribes are sovereign, but they’re only allowed to set up a gambling shop at the highest level of gaming that’s legal in their home state. Right now, they could peddle scratch tickets, or maybe hop into the high-stakes bingo game. There’s no serious money in either pursuit. That changes the moment the governor signs a casino bill into law this summer. Each will be freed to set up gaming operations on their tribal land, on the Cape and Martha’s Vineyard. And the state wouldn’t be able to touch a dime of whatever rolls in.

There is a bit of fine print to tackle first. A Supreme Court decision has stalled the Mashpee Wampanoag effort to take land into federal trust, establishing a sovereign homeland. Still, anyone who thinks Congress will not eventually override the decision is wholly unfamiliar with Congress and with money; money and Congress, though, are by no means strangers.

Clearly, state-backed gambling enterprises will get rolling before any potential tribal enterprises. These things have life cycles of years, not months, though. The Mashpee Wampanoag fought for decades for federal recognition. In that context, the difference between a groundbreaking in 2010 and 2015 isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker. And anyone who thinks the gaming interests that form partnerships with tribes are afraid of competition should take a drive up the California coast, where every exit seems to feature a gambling outpost.

The speaker, who has assumed a leadership role in pushing gambling in the Commonwealth, is fond of quoting figures. He says he knows how many jobs will materialize, and how much cash will flow to cities and towns. His guys have it all figured out. Except that they don’t. They have no idea how many gaming operations the state will eventually wind up hosting. These things can change quickly. And they’re completely beyond Beacon Hill’s reach. Until 2007, the Mashpee Wampanoag weren’t a federally recognized tribe; months later, they had financial backers, and were talking about gobbling up more than 500 acres in Middleborough.



The Legislature hasn’t appeared to be preoccupied with asking questions about the ramifications of votes it takes. DeLeo, in particular, has been steering the effort to broaden gambling’s reach and install 3,000 slot machines at the state’s four racetracks (only two of which still feature actual racing, but let’s not nitpick).


Two of those four — Suffolk Downs and Wonderland — lie in the speaker’s district. Suffolk essentially controls Wonderland, a greyhound track rotten with debt; DeLeo’s version of the gambling legislation would hand Suffolk’s politically wired ownership half of the state’s slots market, giving it a virtual lock on one of the two full casino licenses the state will be selling off. That’s the point, really.


DeLeo rose to his post at Sal DiMasi’s right hand. DeLeo was responsible for divvying up the state budget’s spoils — a process that has long rewarded leadership’s allies, and delivered punishing blows to political enemies. His path into DiMasi’s old office was cleared with budgetary earmarks.


The casino debate shows DeLeo still playing the part of the two-bit committee chairman. DeLeo has yet to fully grasp that the speaker’s office is a statewide position. Here he is, about to dramatically reshape the state’s economic landscape, and he’s obsessing over his district, his neighborhood guys, the tracks he grew up visiting. From the beginning, he has been out to get a piece of the action for his two tracks. And now he’s on the cusp. Once he opens that door, though, he should watch out — that’s when things get interesting.
Paul McMorrow is a staff writer for Banker & Tradesman.


This article certainly delivers many valid points to consider growing out of this  discussion, even after you realize that the author writes, and reflects the perspective of, a journal dedicated to the most rapacious form of capitalism and economic determanism possible, the rich man's bible, Banker and Tradesman.

I discussed in detail what I thought were the parochial reasons why Speaker DeLeo was pushing so hard for the passage of a gaming bill this session, and in anticipation of FY11, a budget year which promises to be the most difficult anyone can remember. I think the arguments cited in the article above place too much emphasis on DeLeo's own personal motivations, however accurate,  for establishing legalized gaming in Massachusetts. Not nearly enough discussion centers on the pure revenue raising needs of the state's administration and it's ability to pass on new revenue to State Aid, regardless of what spending items receive dedicated revenue streams from varying gaming sources.

Taken in conjunction with the latest news that the City's Mayor and legislative deligation is considering the placement of a casino in Fall River as a priority over the Bio-Tech  Industrial Park, to the point of usurping the land for that purpose as a site for the Casino, finally makes more sense as the rest of us can see the reasons for the accelerated discussions.

It also raises even more questions related to the role of the Fall River Office of Economic Development (FROED) and the current plan to inject the agency, which the taxpayers of Fall River already support with their tax dollars,  with an additional $200,000 from the City's Community Development Agency (CDA) to create at least two additional staff postions. The CDA is federally funded but answers to the Mayor's Office, and as such, acts as a de-facto reflection of the City's redevelopment and neighborhood support policy from the mayoral administration. I believe that the current federal funding amount is in the neighborhood of $4.5 million.

The issue arises because FROED has produced nothing....no jobs, no new ideas, no tax base growth...and it's entire reason for existence now centers around this Bio-Park, which may simply disappear. The current daily administrator of FROED, Mr. Fiola, earns close to $200,000 a year in salary and benefits, yet needs two more bodies to produce.. ..what? WE don't know, and when the issue arises, we get the same old song and dance of what FROED will do for us IN THE FUTURE.  And all this is happening at a time when there is a great liklihood that absolutely NOTHING was done by FROED officials to obtain a grant for the City's downtown area regardless of what claims they have mede to the press or the City Council. A check of grant awards on the basis of original applications show none were ever filed for the parking facility or bus station in the downtown area. The opening of the New Courthouse in the middle of the Fall River downtown is close while the area has no place for these court staff, judges, lawyers and clients to park! FROED never made any plans for parking around the courthouse. NONE!

Lots to consider as this City reels from one dilemma to the next. The next few weeks will be extremely telling for Mayor Flanagan and his administration. As rumors abound that he has entered the Dark Side and will conspire with his wealthy and influential campaign backers to run a slate of like minded toadies onto the City Council in the next election to consolidate power in running the City of Fall River without opposition, it will be vital to watch each of his decisions. How he creates this personally defining management and policy picture will be the most important event of the next few weeks.

After the FY11 Budget, that is!

ONLY 51 MORE SHOPPING DAYS UNTIL THE CITY COUNCIL APPROVES THE FALL RIVER FY11 OPERATING BUDGET !