Calter’s CFO appearance
Calter: pro-casino but also pro-listening
MA State Representative Tom Calter addressed the CFO meeting of 1/17/2008. This post is written from my notes of the meeting. As such the content is bound to be brief, incomplete, and not perfectly accurate. Corrections welcome. I also apologize for the clumsy wording in this post – it is mostly notes that were taken live along with some of my own observations and opinions. It’s a rather clumsy read that still manages to convey the substance of Mr. Calters appearance.
If I was to summarize the main points I would say.
- Everyone get along and stop hammering each other
- The deal stinks – it provides a fixed revenue stream for costs that are unknown and variable
- Casino support will die when the numbers come in
- Commercial casino good, Indian casino bad.
Don’t blame the BOS
Mr. Calter made the point that the BOS had very little choice and that they did the best job they could. The IGRA and the process is flawed and the BOS felt trapped and cut the best deal they could. Mr. Calter said that even with his business experience of having acquired a dozen companies, he couldn’t have done better.
He made the point that the Casino Resort Advisory Committee is a good group of people doing very in depth work and running spreadsheets on the effect of the casino on various town departments.
The deal stinks
He said that the deal is upside down – it has a fixed revenue stream and variable cost structure. In short – we don’t know what the costs are, but are stuck with a fixed compensation rate. He said that what happened in Middleboro last summer was a disgrace that was the fault of the federal government and the developers – not the fault of the BOS. The BOS aren’t driving the bus – the developers are driving the bus. Those developers gave you 60 days to evaluate the plan and they should be ashamed of themselves.
He said that his opposition is based on a monetary analysis based on:
- Long term economic value
- What sort of jobs, pay benefits
- What is the impact on the host town
- What is the impact on the host region
He went on to enumerate some of the problems with the agreement.
- Region is not included
- Doesn’t take care of the town of Middleboro
- Pro people can’t point to any real $$ benefit
He pointed out the $2M prepayment winds up as cost for cops/EMS
School effect is unknown and potentially severe
He then ran some theoretical numbers that up to 1000 school aged children could enter area school systems. This would cost $8.5M or so. The pro-casino people are unable to give a number for this or any other impact.
Any increase in schools will push our near-capacity schools over the edge. There is no enough lead time to get new schools built. This is a very good point that I hadn’t thought of. Tom was saying that when you have predictable growth, you can plan for new schools and get some state aid – which takes years. With the casino, growth will be sudden and unpredictable and may wind up with us footing the bill for new schools
This is it – no more money will come
He pointed out that this agreement represents the sum total of our compensation – which will be used against us when the state compact is signed. Essentially we’ve said that this agreement is giving us all the money we need.
Jobs
Despite all the promises to use/hire union labor, there is absolutely nothing codified in the agreement to make sure that happens. Job preference goes to indians and Middleboro residents only.
Property taxes
The deal should have included a variable for increase in school children. This goes back to the concept that the deal is providing a fixed payment when the costs are unknown and variable.
Can’t we all just get along
Tom made the point the CFO, CRAC, the Regional Task Force, and the Middleboro BOS need to stop bashing one another and get on the same page. The enemy is not each other, it’s the developers. That as long as we are bickering together – everyone for the state and elsewhere will stay away and do harm to the effort.
I have given some thought to this and I for one am going to take this advice to heart – and be a kinder, gentler, hammer wielder.
Bad, bad deal
Tom then made the point that – $7M if you do a bottom up analysis is not going to put a dent in the costs to Middleboro – it’s a bad deal. Financially, it’s a bad deal.
Questions
Tom was asked how anybody could work with the BOS – they are so single minded and unreasonable about this. His answer was basically to forget the BOS if they won’t play nicely – that instead we should engage CRAC and the Regional Task Force.
Mr. Calter was asked how property taxes would be effected. He said he didn’t know – that some studies showed both positive and negative effect depending on the facility.
He said that as far as strategy went, the low hanging fruit was education, property taxes, infrastructure.
He reiterated that the agreement promises nothing to the unions.
No union promises
Hal Brown asked if he could you accept a commercial casino at that location. Calter replied “Absolutely not”. He went on to reiterate his support for casinos in general – just not for this one in particular.
Themocracy
First and foremost, many thanks to
Mr. Calter for spending the time with us last night.
In addition, I am eternally greatful to him for PUBLICLY opposing this project.
Too often elected officials hide their true opinions for fear of political retribution.
What Mr. Calter spoke of last night
many at CFO have been speaking of for months. Validation is welcome!
I agree that continuing to quarrel amongst ourselves is counter-productive yet I cannot help but wonder what the outcome of the July 28th meeting would have been had the Board NOT aggressively sold this project or the flawed agreement.
Personally, I would have rather taken our chances with a NO vote.
(which I did with my NO vote July 28.)
True, the town may not have had anything in writing, on the other hand, it would have made the battle that much harder for the developers.
Apparently we didn’t end up with much as it is….
Mr. Calter is right about the on-going war between pro and anti.
The BOS should be treated with more respect. At that same time, they should seek some public atonement and admit some culpability for the animosity that exists for these reasons:
1. They auctioned off the land when they knew the Tribe was interested in that and other parcels.
2. They did nothing to encourage honest debate on this issue and in the minds of many – actively worked to suppress it.
With that I will say again that I’m ready to move on.
Finally we have a representative who has studied the agreement and has come to the same conclusion many of us have. This is a bad deal for the town and for the region.
Anonymous has stated my feelings exactly. The BOS selectmen SOLD this deal. We as a town will heal when the remaining members of the board follow Mr Perkins into retirement.
anonymous said:
The BOS should be treated with more respect.
Aren’t you treated with respect when you treat others with respect? or when you have EARNED it?
How can you mandate that the Middleboro BOS be treated with respect when they are disrespectful and sometimes downright rude to everyone else?
Rep. Calter used extremely conservative figures when estimating the costs of this monster endeavor.
The 2 CT casinos employ 10K and 12K respectively.
Rep. Calter estimated that Middleboro’s monster (my words, not his) would employ 8K.
Estimating that 20% of those employees, or 1600, would have children, at a rate of 2 per household (below the national average) that’s 3200 SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN.
The Education Reform minimum expenditure is $8500.
As Rep. Calter suggested, even if you ONLY assume that 1,000 ADDITIONAL CHILDREN attend the Middleboro School System, that’s $8.5 MILLION.
(As a footnote: if those children DO NOT speak English, those costs double.)
And Middleboro Schools are AT CAPACITY. So, a new school is required.
And Middleboro is AT BONDING CAPACITY.
Somehow, that $7 MILLION from the casino monster doesn’t look like very much.
Thanks so much to Mr. Calter for his in-depth presentation. In 1 hour he presented more of the potential impacts to the community than I have heard from the BOS since the land sale.
His presentation reinforced why it was so important for the town to say NO to the agreement at the STM. Had we all been in agreement then, maybe this horror show would have been over and the developers would have gone away.
Now we’re stuck with a horrible agreement with variable impacts that will ABSOLUTELY worsen with time.
The impact to the school system alone, estimating only 1000 new children at 8500/child for a total cost of 8.5 mil REALLY hit home.
Why haven’t the BOS done their homework like Mr. Calter? How about that 7 member study committee? I don’t remember them mentioning any school impacts…oh wait a minute, they were looking at river boat casinos….I don’t think there’s any schools on those.
What the union supporters have failed to realize in this flawed Agreement is that NO WHERE, ABSOLUTELY NO WHERE is there ANY guarantee of union jobs or union pay scale.
Rep. Calter was at least honest enough to read the Agreement and recognize that grievous flaw.
ONLY commercial casinos that are forced to stipulate that in the Agreement will provide union jobs.
Re-read the Agreement if you’re in doubt.
Verbal promises made by a liar and convicted rapist don’t count.
Rep. Calter coherently commented on the grossly flawed Middleboro Agreement.
It’s curious that Brian G., posting elsewhere as the bogus Fact Finder didn’t raise an issue or ask a question, yet immediately misquoted and misstated what Rep. Calter had said.
Hidden agenda, Brian? Or just jealous that your bravado has been unmasked for what it is?
How could Brian have misquoted
Mr. Calter???
Brian was from what I could tell the ONLY one recording audio from the meeting!
As a result, he had the ability to replay it over and over again.
The elephant in the room, that no one seems to care about, is that the native americans have a unique category: they’re a federally recognized tribe. Their ancestors were abused by white settlers and their land was taken from them by force. Sounds like that’s happening again. It’s now their right to have a reservation. They choose the location in Middleboro. The also have, I understand, a right to have a resort/casino. Not rep calter or anyone can prevent that unless the science and engineering doesn’t work. The Old Colony Place in Kingston, Calter’s area , is equivalent to the proposed casino and that went through, turtles and all. Give the native americans a chance, they were here first. Treat them with decency and I believe they’ll reciprocate by using union people, helping local businesses, schools, etc.
wayne, Brian did appear to be recording the proceedings.
He seems to have revealed himself to be a shallow braggart, convinced of his own brilliance. Just ask him.
He was FULLY aware of the flawed water/wastewater figures in the Agreement.
How could he NOT be aware?
The CT figures WERE available.
If I had them, Brian has such wonderful connections, Brian HAD TO KNOW.
Each time someone arose to question those figures, they were gavelled to silence by the Gavel Queen.
We’re fortunate that Rep. Tom Calter recognizes how flawed those figures are and we need to support him.
We don’t have the water.
We don’t have the wastewater treatment capacity.
Brian – shallow braggart or not – is working very hard on this. It may very well be his data that reveals the casino for the money loser that it is.
I have major issues with the CSG – particularly related to the one study they chose to cite regarding crime and social effects – the dreaded riverboat casino study. That said – let’s give the CRAC a chance. The meeting are published and open. Attend, observe, and criticize where it’s warranted.
Let’s keep it clean folks – engage with data and leave the rest of the BS out in pasture.
Hi Bumpkin! Thanks for all your efforts to get the info out there.
As far as giving CRAC a chance – I did so all summer and saw nothing of worth come out of it. I didn’t say much about them because I thought they would be gone with the wind after the agreement was signed.
But they came back. There’s some new folks there, but Brian is still at the head of the table, and so the group needs to be watched unless we want a repeat. Actually, it would be worse than a repeat becasue somehow they’ve gained more credibility by the struggling board of selectmen.
Speaking of whom… also need to be watched. As for being nice – Calter has to say that – he’s a politician. And he’s the one who’s going to speak in front of the board soon. So let him make nice. Let him ask us to make nice. As long as they keep chugging Kool-aid and telling us it’s spring water – I’ll keep blogging about it.
And as far as having respect for the board – where is their own self-respect? They hastily traded the sovereignty of their town as part of Section 22 part B of the agreement they signed. Did they even read it???
Pah-leeze…
Dear Anonymous #7,
Native American’s have been historically synonymous with the preservation of natural resources.
Now the Wampanoag tibe wants to build a casino, when level III gambling isn’t even legal in our state, and place this casino on wetlands with endangered and threaten species.
Do you see no hypocrisy in this? When does having a ‘right’ make something ‘right’?
When someone burns a flag, I don’t like it, but they have the right to do it. And ultimately, what is really hurt – is the fabric of a flag.
When someone abuses the environment, or potentially alters the economy, ecosystem, and social fabric of an entire region, and claims it as their right, excuse me if I don’t feel guilty and look the other way.