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Casino Backer Tries End Run Around House LeadersBy Jim O'Sullivan - November 02, 2007
State House News Service
BOSTON - Looking to offset institutional skepticism toward Gov. Deval Patrick's casino plan, and circumvent House leaders, the longest-serving member of the Legislature is trying to schedule a public hearing in the next two weeks for the owners of the state's four racetracks.
House Dean David Flynn, citing a little-known rule of the Legislature, wants a quick hearing on the potential revenues from expanded gambling, which is proposed under Patrick's call for three casinos. The House chairman of the Committee on Bonding, Capital Expenditures and State Assets, Flynn said he would invite Patrick to the committee hearing, which he hopes to hold before Nov. 17.
The governor's plan has met resistance in the House, lead by a skeptical Speaker Salvatore DiMasi.
This week, a joint hearing of two committees led by anti-casino lawmakers, Reps. Daniel Bosley, D-North Adams, and Ruth Balser, D-Newton, focused on gambling addiction. Patrick aides were forced into acknowledging the administration had no firm estimate for the unintended costs of opening the state to resort-style casinos.
"The governor will be pleased," Flynn, D-Bridgewater, told the News Service. "No one's carrying his water on this. There's a vacuum. I've been here forever, and I'm tired of it ... We need the money."
Patrick's plan does not provide for slot machines at the state's racetracks, a decision that cost his proposal support in the Legislature, where lawmakers who represent tracks are fiercely protective. With the casino bill's odds seeming to grow longer in the three weeks since it's been filed, the administration has been consulting lawmakers for advice about how to assemble a thus-far elusive coalition.
Flynn, who served in the House from 1964 to 1972 before returning in 1999, frequently represents the interests of the Raynham-Taunton dog track's owning family, the Carneys, and has said he is open to casinos – though not necessarily a supporter of the Patrick proposal.
Another long-serving House member with an undecided stance on Patrick's plan, 2nd Assistant Majority Leader Byron Rushing, D-South End, approved of Flynn's plan, calling it evidence of the open process he said should attend the Patrick proposal.
"I think we should talk about this forever," Rushing said.
Wednesday's hearing on the governor's bill brought Patrick aides before lawmakers to discuss the legislation's least appealing prospects, gambling addictions and its impacts on state coffers. The bill sets aside portions of casino revenues for funding anti-addiction and public safety programs.
In a statement, Flynn said, "The opponents have had their 'negative hearing' ... Now it's time to [put] together a comprehensive hearing to get all pro-gaming sides together and hopefully agree on some realistic revenue and time estimates."
But Flynn acknowledged that his public hearing would "do the impossible – getting all of this state's wagering interests talking on the same page about the same issue – tax revenue." Flynn said he would ask delegates from federally recognized Indian tribes to appear as well.
The corner of often-Byzantine legislative guidelines Flynn cites, Joint Rule 1F, reads, "The joint committee shall consult with the various agencies of the executive branch and the office of the treasurer and receiver-general relative to project expenditures, availability of funds, the sale of new bonds and the resultant debt obligations, federal reimbursements and other related funding and bonding issues."
A pair of June hearings on gambling bills scheduled by two different committees, one led by Bosley, were canceled this year. |
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