Blue Mass Group | My Amendments to Expanded Gaming Bill to ...

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In an effort to protect municipalities concerned about negative impacts from a bill to expand gaming in the Commonwealth, I filed amendments yesterday with the Senate Clerk?s Office to strengthen safeguards and provide additional protections for surrounding communities.

The legislature has debated and voted on expanded gambling in Massachusetts for several years now, and this year it looks closer to becoming a reality than ever before. Throughout this entire process, my main priority has always been to protect and support my district?s residents, communities, neighborhoods, and local businesses. I have filed these amendments to make sure the needs of surrounding communities ? across the Commonwealth ? are better addressed and understood so we can have the best possible outcome for our towns, our residents, and the state as a whole.

The bill being considered by the Senate does contain some protections for? communities that find themselves impacted by another community?s choice to host a gambling facility. In fact, I fought very hard to achieve these protections because I feel that all surrounding communities deserve to have a strong voice in this process.

After hearing from and discussing this issue with many constituents, local officials, organizations, and residents from all over the state, I submitted amendments to strengthen these community safeguards and ensure that surrounding communities and the public are involved in the entire process.

Some highlights of these amendments include:

• Changing the definition of ?surrounding communities? to ensure fairness to all impacted communities and to give them a seat at the table during the process;

• Giving surrounding communities and substantially impacted communities the ability to vote ? not just host communities;
• Ensuring public sentiment is taken into consideration by requiring the Gaming Commission to consider the public support or opposition in the host and surrounding communities;

• Increasing surrounding community involvement in the long term mitigation process by allowing each Local Community Mitigation Advisory Committee to appoint one member to the Subcommittee on Community Mitigation ? which currently only has representatives from the host communities;

• Increasing fairness to cities and towns when negotiating with a casino by requiring the applicant to pay for legal or financial costs incurred by municipalities during the negotiation process;

• Requiring the Gaming Commission to consider how to prevent concentration of gaming establishments in a particular area when awarding a license for a region

Advocating for the residents of Massachusetts and working to further strengthen our communities is the reason I get up in the morning and these amendments were submitted with the needs and concerns of our communities with me foremost in my mind.

It continues to be an honor and a privilege to represent the 2nd Middlesex and Norfolk District and to be a part of the Massachusetts Legislature. And I believe that these amendments to ensure our communities have a voice, a vote, and the ability to directly participate in the process will help the Commonwealth remain the strong, connected, and community-focused state it is known to be.

Source: http://bluemassgroup.com/2011/09/my-amendments-to-expanded-gaming-bill-to-protect-local-communities/

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