Cornered and wounded, legislator bets the house

By Paul on Fri, Aug 17, 2007 11:59 am

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Very bizarre article here, via State House News stringer Gin Dumcius's valuable new blog: After getting grilled by his hometown selectmen over state education aid, a freshman Rep fires back, essentially, "Don't sweat your tits over it! Soon, we're gonna be swimming in so much filthy casino money, we'll have one school per kid! That's how much cash gambling will bring in!"

So he didn't say that exactly. Here's what the dude did say:

McCarthy offered hope to the board, assuring selectmen the construction of a new casino in Middleboro would bring new revenue to the state, which would likely increase state-aid… “It seems to be they’re leaning towards approving it,” McCarthy said.

It would seem that members of the media aren't the only ones being shielded from Governor Patrick's super-secret gambling crib sheet. We hope. There's no other explanation for McCarthy's claims, because there's no way that report says that casino gambling is a cure-all for the thoroughly fucked financial straits that the state's cities and towns find themselves in (a situation they're in, BTW, because of property taxes, override fatigue, and a legislature still pissing itself over local-option taxes).

That report can't say that casinos are a magic money tree, because they're not. Last year, the Lottery generated more than twice the local and state aid that Connecticut's two casinos did. Twice as much. How much more is there to squeeze out?

In February, the Dig did what nobody else has felt like doing - we looked at the numbers behind the thing. There are tons of variables in play, but we found that, in the most likely scenario, once you account for lost tax revenue and the inevitably shattered businesses and lives, the Mashpee Wampanoag's Middleborough casino would net the state $79 million annually. (It doesn't live online anymore, but you can find some very nice things that Jon Keller said about it here.)

With those numbers in mind, you see how laughable it is for McCarthy to be promising buckets of money to his constituents. There's none to be had, son. Thanks for trying, play again soon. You can only wonder where the dude got this idea from, and what other kinds of empty promises that casino lobbyists are sprinkling around the State House. Gambling is a scam. The tribe and their lecherous backers get rich, but nobody else (Unless you're a public employee sitting on primo land, that is) does. That probably isn't what your selectmen want to hear, Rep. McCarthy. But numbers always have been a bitch.