We told you so!
It's over! .... for Middleboro
It gives me great pleasure today to thank all the dedicated members and friends of Casino Facts who have been fighting and supporting us to maintain the quality of life that we so well deserve. For almost three years we have been trying to drive a message home that a Casino in Middleboro was "not inevitable". Many will say it was the SCOTUS decition to not allow land to trust, or the high cost of the infrastructure, or the environmental impacts, or one of the many other road blocks that put an end to the Tribe's ill-fated plan, but in my heart I truly believe it was the culmination of dedicated research, and the tireless effort to educate and help people understand the logic and the basic principle that there is no price tag for an exchange of "quality of life". Today is not only a victory for Middleboro, but for the area as a whole, but the war is far from over, for now is the time to fight for the rest of the residents of Ma. and help them understand the dark and hidden secrets of predatory gambling.
Thank you,
Frank Dunphy
President Casino Facts Committee
Open Letter To Governor Patrick
Dear Mr. Patrick,
You are of course aware of the proposed Middleboro casino. What you may not
be aware of is the lack of due process and input our citizens have had in this
process. The rush to a town meeting vote bypassed any public discussion.
There was no pro versus con arguments and no public analysis of the document. In fact many of our citizens saw the agreement for the first time while standing in the hot sun on July 28th - a mere five days after it was released to the public.
Simply put, the process was designed to eliminate citizen discussion and reasoned analysis of the agreement or even the very idea of a large casino.
Since that vote, documents reveal that Middleboro did not do it's due diligence in assessing the impact of this facility. Most departments only provided "impact estimates" that were stock manpower formulas for current needs. This deal will barely cover the costs of current needs and does nothing to provide for the financial burden that will come with servicing the casino. The rush to town meeting was done for two reasons.
- To prevent opposition from building any further
- To get a favorable result that would sway you as you ponder the decision to allow gambling in Massachusetts.
Our organization personally polled and spoke to about 4,000 registered voters and found that sentiment was evenly divided. There lopsided vote resulted from a powerful union and town employee vote coupled with an insidious disinformation campaign that convinced many voters that a "No" vote on the agreement would mean that the casino would come anyway but that Middleboro would get no money. Mr. Marshall himself reinforced that message on the night before the vote while speaking to residents from the largest voter bloc in town - Oak Point. Of course the validity of the slipshod town meeting vote is under question with reports of security issues and ballot stuffing - none of which I can personally confirm.
Our calls and emails to our state and national Representatives and Senators have yielded little more than canned replies or silence.
We ask that you meet with representatives of our group at a time and place of your choosing.
We also appeal to you make the only sensible choice with regards to gambling in Massachusetts by not allowing class 3 gambling in our state. If your casino study committee did their jobs correctly, you now know that state revenue from casinos will largely come at the expense of revenue we are already getting in other parts of the economy. Casinos create nothing and only cause an economic reshuffling of the deck. You also know that the severe social harms that come with casinos will result in costs that offset any perceived economic gain. Representative Bosley has been studying this issue for years. Listen to him. He's right.
A shallow analysis will focus on the millions of dollars the state will get from casino gambling. A complete analysis will factor in the loss of tax revenue from other parts of the economy and the real costs that we will be paying associated with increases in gambling addiction.
Do the right thing. Not the politically easy thing.
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