Gambling Pie

The BLB bid to purchase and expand Lincoln Park continues its passage through the House and will probably be approved by the House and Senate within the next few days. On the face of it, it seems like a pragmatic piece of legislation that has a little something for everyone.

...the legislation would provide millions of dollars in promised tax relief -- including the elimination of the car tax -- through an expansion of gambling in the state...

Unlike previous versions, the legislation approved last night by the House Finance Committee extends a similar tax-rate guarantee to Newport Grand to spur its owners into adding 800 slots there as part of a $20-million expansion, which includes a new 90-room hotel.

The bill, which puts the imprint of House leaders on a bill that passed the Senate in late May, also places a new caveat on the revenue share promised to the state's Narragansett Indians.

The Narragansetts would still get 5 percent of the revenue from the new slots at Lincoln Park, up to $10 million annually, but their share would evaporate upon the opening of the proposed West Warwick casino or any other gambling facility from which they receive money.

Other highlights include a new requirement that BLB Investors, the consortium seeking to buy Lincoln Park, pay for all road improvements on and to Route 146. Earlier versions had the state paying the first $5 million.

In addition to all the other tax promises in the bill, the new version commits $5 million to a municipal aid program that benefits all 39 of the state's cities and towns.

The commitment was added in response to complaints -- aired again last night -- that $20 million of the new money was committed to a handful of so-called distressed communities, including the home districts House Speaker William J. Murphy and Senate President Joseph A. Montalbano.

"We're all Rhode Islanders. We just want a piece of the pie," said Rep. Jan Malik, D-Warren.

For the citizens of Rhode Island, it gets rid of the much-despised "temporary" car tax. For the Governor, it will make the Narragansett's think a bit more about wanting a casino all their own. For the legislators, it offers a veritable bounty of trickle-down revenue that they can use to further entrench themselves. The only losers appear to be the citizens of Lincoln.

A public hearing earlier in the day elicited complaints from several Lincoln residents that the legislature was again poised to foist more gambling on them without a statewide or local vote.

"We have had a casino incrementally, starting with the horsetrack back in 1946, and then the dogtrack . . . simulcast, a few slots. How did this ever happen?" asked John Cullen, of Lincoln. "We have a creeping little casino that's getting bigger and bigger . . . without the people having a say."

He and others from Lincoln also urged the lawmakers to stop "deluding yourselves" and acknowledge that adding 1,750 slots to the 3,002 already authorized is an expansion of gambling that requires a public referendum.

But the House sponsor of the BLB bill, Rep. William San Bento, D-Pawtucket, insisted that more of the same is not an expansion of gambling. "We have not gone from VLTs to dice to blackjack."

. . . Senate President Joseph A. Montalbano, D-North Providence, was also generally "on board."

However, there was one change that came as a surprise to Montalbano.

The town of Lincoln, part of which he represents, currently gets 1.25 percent of all slot revenue at the track. Montalbano's version of the bill had increased that cut to 1.5 percent on the new machines. Murphy struck that language, keeping the town's share at 1.25 percent.

Montalbano said that increased money for Lincoln "is supposed to be in there" and he wanted to review the bill before commenting further.

So, for the most part, everyone is happy. Except me.

I'd like to return to the comment made by Rep. Malik that so fittingly, and unwittingly, summed up the root cause of the fiscal insanity, centered at the State House with spidery tendrils throughout Rhode Island, that runs rampant here in the Ocean State: "We're all Rhode Islanders. We just want a piece of the pie." Exactly, and that's the problem. Rhode Island legislators, and by extension we, their constituents who continue to vote the same old bunch in, are addicted to government programs. In that light, anything that promises to expand the available pool of cash from which the State Government can draw is perceived as a good thing. "We just want a piece of the pie."

While gambling can be addictive for the individual, government can become just as addicted to the revenue that gambling generates. History has shown that the appetite of the RI State government increases faster than the revenue “pie” can be enlarged. Remember the windfall of the tobacco settlement? The future can almost be predicted. The legislature will inevitably earmark all of this new gambling revenue for “necessary” programs on which many citizens will come to rely. Eventually, another budget shortfall will occur and, rather than rein in government spending, another quick fix (like a Narragansett Casino) will be sought. But there are only so many magic bullets in the gambling gun. We have to deal with the root cause, too much government spending, in a realistic way or the false promise that gambling offers could end up hitting us all right in the wallet.