Left In Lowell

Thank god the House Democrats have some balls. Just a skirmish in the war but it’s headed in the right direction.

In today’s editorial, the Sun encourages the legislature to seriously consider Governor Patrick’s casino proposal. It appears the Sun didn’t really look much past Patrick’s own numbers in making this recommendation. I thought newspapers were supposed to be critical thinkers, especially when it comes to policy from politicians? Now, suddenly, they lose their cynicism?

Or does this have something to do with the chief editor’s, er, penchant for gambling at New York racetracks?

I’ll admit, Patrick’s casino numbers look succulent. All those jobs, and look at the state revenues we would get! What the Sun seems determined to ignore is that these numbers appear to be from the casino industry itself and do not bear out in multiple independent studies.

The casino industry is a clever salesmen. They downplay the costs associated with bringing in resort (slot) casinos into a state, and inflate the revenue projections. If we’re looking for a fix for our budget woes in Massachusetts, this is not going to be the answer. There is every evidence from non-casino-funded sources that we would lose jobs and revenue if we allowed casinos. At best, we should be looking to do a completely objective study, fully funded, via a non-interested party, before even considering doing this. This has not been done. The Governor didn’t wait for such a study when making his proposal, and didn’t propose doing one. I don’t know why the Governor believes the casino’s projections, but you know how your mom always told you, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is? Well, this is a good example.

But I would have hoped that the Lowell Sun editorial page, where cynicism about government is often evident, would do the due diligence we need from our media. Instead, they just want to take the Governor, and the casino lobby, at their word. It boggles the mind.

Today we’re talking to Tom Larkin, an addictions councilor and fellow panelist at the Andover anti-casino forum I spoke at a couple weeks ago. You can listen live starting at 10am on WUML, 91.5FM or stream it.

By the way, I am likely to get my DVD copy in the mail any day now, so I will be bringing that to LTC and also should be able to get it on the web for streaming.