Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Monson forum

There is a rather ridiculous on-line forum in greater Springfield area hosted by the regional newspaper and I am having a discussion with a gentleman that I recall being very concerned about his taxes and the condition of roads in our community. So, the previous post was in response to his asking about why I posted the link to the Reuters article. Then he replied with this:

Yes I was joking but only about the tickets covering revenue.

Middleborough is one of the other communities that is in the mix for hosting a casino. They recently completed a very thorough study of the potential impact of a casino in their town. I think the results are just as biased as many of the anti-casino research you are citing, but I also believe it adds a little balance to the conversation.

http://www.middleborough.com/General/Impact%20and%20Mitigation%20Report.pdf

Feel free to visit the above link and see that while there are potential negatives to a casino placement for both the host community and the surrounding cities and towns, there are also some very real and very important benefits.

I am only going to address one of your most direct attacks on a casino placement in Palmer. You state that in CT the student population in the surrounding communities jumped enormously after the opening of the casinos. What you fail to refer to is the very rural character of both Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun's communities. Being remote, the casino had to look far outside the local community to staff. As a result overtime folks that were employed in the casinos moved closer to both reduce their commutes and improve their quality of life. Your comments make no mention of the tax base impact this had or the reasoning for it's occurrence. Once again it's not a complete argument only designed to put fear into people's lives where non-need be. In Palmer conversely the infrastructure will and population density will make the likelihood of a huge influx of new students substantially lower than in CT.

The rest of your post is more of the same fear-mongering and distortions of fact. Read the Middleborough report and I think you can see that the gains will out weigh the costs.

Finally as I said in my first post, if Palmer and the local communities aren't savvy enough to make arrangements before the placement that protect them in a meaningful way from increased costs associated with the Casino then they will get what comes.

I know that means we should have faith in our elected officials, but since none of them are capable of a balanced discussion of this issue on either side that won't likely happen. If I were a Monson Select Board member, I would be forcing my way to the table to insure that my voice was heard constructively and supporting the casino if in fact it was developed responsibly by all parties.


So, it was imperative that I responded with this:

I just came home from a two hour meeting of the regional casino task force (WMCAT) comprised of 15 towns in the Quaboag region that includes people who personally have differing opinions on the casino issue. We have worked together for almost two years (no I don't get paid) to identify the concerns for mitigation to the towns in the region should expanded gambling/gaming become legal in Massachusetts. We finalized a letter listing 23 areas of concern.Your reply to my post indicates that you are not interested in discussing the issue and have made up your mind. I responded to you because I had found you previously open minded.

The Spectrum Gaming (casino industry experts) report commissioned by Governor Patrick to review his pro-posal for three resort casinos leans bias towards casinos, and the State of CT study is from the state's department of revenue. Your accusation that my post is "fear mongering and distortions of fact" is false.

"If I were a Monson Select Board member"

If you were a Monson Selectman, you would know that increased population particularly with children to educate, has a net negative impact on the town budget. Spectrum Gaming featured one town, of the 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth, in their report and it was Monson. I wrote the study that they published highlighting the fiscal impacts on education. You can find it at www.mass.gov(search Spectrum Gaming report).

If you read the link that I posted from the state of CT citing their documented revenues/expenses and impacts on the communities you would perhaps understand what was being posted. I am surprised to learn, as someone concerned about their tax dollars, that you have not done more research on this issue.

Fortunately for the taxpayers the "town" has been trying to protect it's financial interests through WMCAT and other initiatives.

I read the Middleborough study when it was released. Their Selectboard negotiated a lousy deal for 7 million dollars with criminals, in secret.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Alow me to adress soley the impact report posted from Middleboro.
The report was hastily concocted, ignored many, many major isues that residents raised.
The concerns of residents were solicited on questionares that were distributed.My husband and I submitted a list that was never included.We have friends who raised numerous other concerns that were never noted.When the tally was reported,the count was nominal -- I copied and distrbuted more forms to our friends than were reported received.Now,I'm not saying nuthing,but its a fact.Dont present that report as fact because its an insult to any thinking resident of the town.

Middleboro Taxpayer said...

This is sooooo soooo familiar! We had to endure the uninformed presenting their ill-conceived comments and arguments.
If Middleboro had been honest,they would have reported that the School Superintendent and the School Committee endorsed a casino without an agreement in place.They accepted backroom promises from a man who is now a federal prison guest, Glen The Felon Marshel.
Schools are 'at capacity.'Any major influx will force new schools at a cost of $40million?$60million?
The dolt who is posting this trash should visit the area at 5PM any day,any week.Roads are gridlocked-at a standstill.a tractor trailer rollover at the Mboro rotery backed up traffic for hours and hours on routes 495,24,18,28,105, 44,3.The dolt should hang around until the Cape weekend trafic begins.Try moving from friday afternoon until monday am.Our state reps know just how bad this mess is.
Does the dolt want to write a state check for $400million or $500million to upgrade the roads to pay for casino investers to handle 50,000 estimated cars per day?That's just for the major roads to handle trafic and doesn't include the secondary roads that will pick up an overflow.

Anonymous said...

The Middleboro Casino Impact report the gentlemen refers to was a rushed job that paid short shrift to the social costs. Too few people with too little time. It is about the last document someone should be holding up when they are arguing the benefits of casinos.

Anonymous said...

Kathy,
The coversation you had is almost word for word from the mouth of Middleboro selectwoman Marsha Brunelle tonight at their BOS meeting. She was trying to refute their town planner's notion that there would be business loss and an influx of casino population.

She is as dumb as a bag of rocks by saying that she does not know of or read any studies that show casinos close other businesses in the surrounding town.

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