IN MARCH, House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi smothered the Patrick administration's bill to license up to three resort casinos in Massachusetts. Now, he is compounding his error with an unwieldy proposal to put Patrick's casino gambling bill on the ballot as a nonbinding initiative.
Such a ballot question would tell lawmakers little of any value. Polls already show that most state residents support casino gambling in the abstract. Voters were looking for legislators to debate specific aspects of the governor's bill. How many casinos? Where? Under what kind of oversight? And where would casino tax revenues go? But DiMasi stifled such debate, in the course of twisting arms to keep the bill from passing the House or even receiving a favorable committee report.
The ballot ploy might help deflect the anger of pro-casino forces, especially organized labor. But it confuses everyone else.
DiMasi says he offered the ballot initiative as a compromise measure to the Senate, where a group of Republicans had introduced a pro-casino amendment to the state budget. Yet that amendment was soundly defeated a short time later. Now it is the ballot question proposal that is distracting lawmakers from their budget deliberations.
If the ballot question goes forward, further commotion is almost guaranteed, from casino industry sharpies and from opponents of casino gambling, all of whom are sure to flood the airwaves with exaggerated claims. Subterfuge is also no stranger to these campaigns. Last year, Globe reporter Sean Murphy exposed the activities of casino executives who were negotiating to open a Mashpee Wampanoag casino in Middleborough while spending millions of dollars to defeat a potential rival Indian casino in Rhode Island on the grounds that such establishments weaken the social fabric of society.
This page supported Patrick's casino plan, because it had the potential to provide 20,000 permanent jobs and $400 million in annual revenue in a state that has no appetite for broad-based tax increases.
But Patrick's bill was not the last word on how the revenues should be used. He wants to spend the money for transportation upgrades and to provide property tax relief in the form of an income tax credit. But there could be wiser uses for the money, such as education or healthcare. No ballot campaign can resolve complexities like these.
All these questions could be explored further if Patrick reintroduces his casino bill next year. Maybe DiMasi will even see that there is no substitute for serious legislative debate.
