It was Boston Mayor Martin Walsh duking it out in a cage match with Revere, Everett, Wynn Resorts and Mohegan Sun, for the edification of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. Walsh tried to frame it as a debate on frugality: “It’s really about putting it off until after the ballot question is decided. If we go through all this work before the ballot question — whether it’s arbitration or whatever we do — and the voters vote it down, we spent tens of thousands of dollars in attorneys fees from the city of Boston.”
Rejoined Wynn’s Michael Weaver, “Wynn has diligently adhered to the current timeline laid out by the Gaming Commission, including filing our 4,000-page Final Environmental Impact Report yesterday. Any changes to the timeline would be unfair and burdensome to the applicants, the host communities and to taxpayers.” Everett and Revere officials added that moving the deadline to mid-November would deprive their cities of mitigation payments.
Said a clearly irritated Everett Mayor Carlos DeMaria Jr., “In the past 10 months, Boston has repeatedly tried to derail this important and transparent process from taking its course. Despite any uncertainty with the law, we still hold a responsibility to continue to move forward.”
“Voters already have plenty of information. These entities don’t want democracy to take place,” argued Boston’s somewhat overwrought attorney, Eugene O’Flaherty. He also tipped his hand, suggesting that Walsh’s endgame is to kill the casinos outright, when he “cited earlier polls and media reports suggesting support for casinos in Massachusetts is waning.”
Commissioner James McHugh, acting as chairman, argued for more sunshine in the political process. “It can energize voters. But I don’t see how that skews voters,” he said. Indeed, with polling consistently showing Mohegan Sun preferred by Bostonians, might they vote for a repeal if Wynn Resorts won instead? As Commissioner Gayle Cameron (right) said, “More information is helpful to all voters. It’s the prudent way to proceed.”
In the end, the MGC gave Walsh a spanking, voting 4-0 against further postponement of the Everett-or-Revere process. Added Commissioner Enrique Zuniga, “The voters will make their judgment with better information.” At this point, two things will happen. Either Walsh, the spoiled infant of American politics, will go to court or he’ll hold his breath until he turns blue. Probably both.
