Sunday, June 14, 2009

Divisiveness not Kumbaya


The traffic simulation in Palmer brought pro casino union supporters from across the state along with local supporters to counter the 75 vehicles that drove through Palmer in an approved casino traffic simulation. An estimated 9,000 to 12,500 vehicles are projected (weekday:weekend).

Who is going to pay for the additional students we need to educate? When will the legislature perform a comprehensive cost analysis on the proposed corporate casino impacts on the region and provide data driven proposals for mitigation? If as I suspect, casinos are not net profit to the state and taxpayers, why would there be any hesitancy by our elected officials to study the matter including true costs of mitigation?

5 comments:

Kathleen Conley Norbut said...

Click on the photo so that you can see the full signage on the car.

Anonymous said...

The unquestioning union support and the willingness of union members to accept that casinos will create jobs is disappointing. Several friends who are union members have told me that they were told that if they opposed casinos, they would never work for the union again.
How isolated is that? What are the reasons? Some might say "follow the money" and I wonder why the media isn't doing so.

Kathleen Conley Norbut said...

I was told by a top official in the AFL-CIO that if I ever run for elected office again, they will remember (that I didn't vote for their leader on the slate to go to the DNC). Yes, it was a threat.

Way to support a strong worker Democrat just because she knows that the casino industry is a net loss to the average taxpayer.

Middleboro Voter said...

My husband and I went to the TMFH (Town Meeting From Hell) held on a playing field in the heat of the summer to vote on the now defunct Mashpee Mess.We sat surrounded by some of our friends who are union members and were told they HAD to support the casino or they wouldnt work for the union ever again.(Secret ballot! Our friends didn't vote for the casino!And they made cash contributions to the casino opposition!)We watched the local IBEW bring in busloads of out of town "volunteers" who sat in the middle of the field and booed the casino opponents when they spoke.
We were there!
It was a disgraceful display of ANTI democracy just as you'll see elsewhere as the issue progresses through the legislature.
Follow the money? You got that right! Take a look at the funding unions get from casinos. Take a look at the opposition unions have gotten from the CT casinos. Why are unions supporting them?
Other than to strong arm individuals into supporting this and other issues that oppose our collective best interests, the unions are on the wrong side and are risking a great deal.
It makes me wonder about the integrity of the union leadership.

Anonymous said...

nice post. thanks.