Casino hearing is set for today
State House ready for crowd, scrutiny of governor's bill
Union workers, religious leaders, academics, environmentalists and even online poker players will converge on the State House today for a long-awaited hearing on the governor's resort casino bill.
The activities will begin at around 9 a.m., when Governor Deval Patrick will address hundreds of procasino union members planning a rally on Boston Common before heading to the State House to lobby lawmakers or testify on behalf of the bill. So many visitors are expected that workers at the State House Cafe spent the day making hundreds of sandwiches in advance.
"I'm going to say all kinds of things about the economy and jobs," said Robert Haynes, president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, adding that his members will urge lawmakers to support the legislation and buck House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, who has been asking House members to vote against it.
"Before the Legislature does anything bold, we'd like the opportunity to talk to the members," Haynes said. "Our people are hungering for jobs inside these casinos and spinoff jobs."
Pointing out that Democrats control both the governor's office and both legislative chambers for the first time since the early 1990s, he added, "I'll be profoundly disappointed if we win the debate on the merits, but still lose the point. I don't want to see that happen in my State House, in my Democratically controlled State House no less."
Both sides spent the weekend, including yesterday's Evacuation Day holiday, trying to secure commitments from fence sitters, especially House members of the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies, which is holding the hearing. The committee could issue a report on the bill today and send it to the full House for consideration as early as Thursday.
Patrick was out of state yesterday, attending the swearing in of New York's new governor, David Paterson.
But aides said he was working the phones in a last-minute effort to salvage the bill, which even backers said appeared to be headed for defeat after DiMasi called members in one by one last week, imploring them to vote against the measure.
Other politicians and interest groups yesterday issued public appeals or offered previews of their testimony.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino, a strong proponent, will argue that a casino at Suffolk Downs in East Boston would generate hundreds of full-time jobs, increase personal income, and generate millions in tax revenue.
But Conservation Law Foundation president Philip Warburg sent a letter to the committee yesterday expressing concern that casinos could "increase greenhouse gas emissions, diminish air quality, increase traffic, and lead to other serious environmental harms."
And members of a group called the Poker Players Alliance will rally against the bill, which contains a provision that makes playing online poker illegal.
The group will be joined by Harvard Law School professor Charles Nesson.
Meanwhile, a key Senate supporter said he may seek a binding statewide ballot question on casinos in the fall.
"It certainly would be an appropriate subject matter for a statewide referendum," said Senator Steven C. Panagiotakos of Lowell, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, adding that he believes that even casino opponents in the House might be persuaded they should give the public a chance to voice their opinion.
Panagiotakos said the issue is too important to be lost in the increasingly personal struggle that has developed between the governor and DiMasi.
Frank Phillips of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
