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This is the OPINIONS section of the site. All opinions are welcome, but must be polite and not abusive or use objectionable language.
FinComm rejects Casino
The Middleboro Finance Committe voted 5-2 to oppose the casino.
The rationale is that this will cost more than it is worth. These figures (taken from a CasinoFacts.org editorial about this) show their view of the situation:
3.M - Schools
250K - Extra Ambulance(recommended by Pat Rogers)
1.1M - General Government increase as mentioned by Mr. Bond
- and Mr. Perkins
2.8M - Police and Fire increase(based on original $2M figure
- after 3 years when tribal support ends but services
- still required.
1M - Employee fringe benefits due to newly expanded
- government.(based on past increases and personnel
- associated with this contract)
1.1M - Removal of Trash fee mentioned by Mr. Perkins
9.2M - Total EXPENSES.
Three million for the schools? Our Casino Study Committee says Montville CT only had to spend $70,000 for their schools because of Mohegan Sun. I'm not saying our schools only need $70K - they need whatever they need, but they need it NOW, not because of the Casino.
Likewise, we have an empty firestation out on Route 18 - did we build that for the Casino? Of course not - but without the Casino, we can't afford to man it.
Obviously reasonable people could disagree about these allocations (and apparently two members of the FinComm had disagreements), but even without hashing through all that, I'm puzzled by the tone of "rejection".
Don't we WANT to improve our schools, our police and fire departments?
Don't we NEED to do these things even without the Resort?
If an expanded ambulance service were only break even (and with Oak Point and the general aging of the population I'd contest that loudly), isn't that a good thing anyway?
One small thing I do have to note. Calling the removal of the trash fee an 'expense' is extreme irony. That's a BENEFIT, not an expense, and is completely unrelated to the Resort-Casino.. the project gives us the OPPORTUNITY to remove that unpopular fee - but that's NOT an expense in any sense of the word.
Yes, government expenses grow, but it's not like you are throwing money into the void: the money will go to good purpose - isn't this what it's FOR?
Again, reasonable people might argue the inevitability of parts of the distribution the FinCom projects here, but don't we all expect to SPEND this money to better the town? Or were we going to pile it up on the town hall lawn and sit around it rubbing our hands and gloating about how rich we are while letting our schools, fire, police etc. continue to suffer?
Send comments and new posts to tony@aplawrence.com
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