Governor, House speaker continue war of words over casino

March 4, 2008 08:16 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

Governor Deval Patrick fired back at House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi today over his criticism of Patrick's casino construction job estimates with a simple message: Put up or shut up.

Patrick, seeking to shift the focus from a dispute over specific jobs numbers, sent a letter to each of the 155 members of the House chiding DiMasi for not coming up with a revenue-generating plan of his own.

"Attacking ideas without proposing sound alternatives is not good economic policy, nor what the public expects or deserves," Patrick wrote. "If the Speaker has other proposals that will generate the benefits of our legislation, including direct property tax relief for over one million households, I look forward to hearing them."

A Globe story on Sunday said Patrick's estimate that building three casinos in Massachusetts would produce 30,000 construction jobs appeared excessively optimistic compared to actual experience and independent estimates.

On Monday, DiMasi, citing the Globe, accused the governor and his staff of failing to produce a realistic jobs scenario and said Patrick's plan is losing credibility on Beacon Hill. He called Patrick's estimates "absurd."

But Patrick and his economic development secretary Daniel O'Connell today countered that the dispute over casino construction jobs should not be allowed to tarnish the overall promise of casino gambling, including new jobs and a new source of revenue for the state.

"Regardless of whether the proposal creates 30,000 construction jobs over the next few years, or 5,000 to 20,000 construction jobs as reflected in other estimates, one thing is certain: the speaker's alternative will create zero jobs," the governor said in his letter to lawmakers.