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Search Firm To Help Pick Mass.Casino Board

By Paul Tuthill

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-995495.mp3

Boston, MA – Top officials in Massachusetts have announced they'll hire a search firm to help select some of the members of the powerful new state gambling commission. Activists have launched a bid for a ballot question to repeal the casino law. WAMC's Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill reports.

The casino legislation signed last week by Governor Deval Patrick calls for Patrick, State Treasurer Steven Grossman, and Attorney General Martha Coakley to each appoint one member to the new gambling commission, with Patrick naming the chair. The final two positions are filled by a majority vote of the attorney general, treasurer, and Governor Patrick.
The state leaders announced jointly, Wednesday, that an independent search firm will be selected in 30 days to beginning screening candidates for the two joint appointments. By law the full time board must be in place by mid March.

Once in place the gambling commission will be one of the most powerful institutions in Massachusetts state government. It will have sole authority to issue the licenses for the three casinos and one slots parlor that are authorized in the new law. The commission must be bipartisan, with no more than three members representing the same party. Starting salaries are 112 thousand 500 dollars, with the chair paid 150 thousand dollars annually.
Treasurer Grossman, announced separately Wednesday the appointment of an advisory committee to assist in his selection of a member of the gambling commission. Attorney General Coakley announced she is accepting applications for her individual appointment to the commission and set a deadline of January 9th to apply.
Casino opponents in Massachusetts are not giving up. They've petitioned to put a referendum on the November election ballot that would repeal the casino law. John Ribeiro, who lives in the Boston suburb of Winthrop, near a possible casino development at the Suffolk Downs Race Track, heads a new organization called Repeal the Casino Deal. He calls the new law a Beacon Hill boondoggle that won't deliver the revenue promised and will cost the entire state in terms of more crime and social ills.
But that might not happen, should Attorney General Martha Coakely determine the casino law is not subject to repeal by referendum. The law appropriates some money and the state constitution bars referendums to stop appropriations. Ribeiro says they're prepared to go to the state's Supreme Court if the attorney general rules against the petition.
If the petition to repeal the casino law is judged constitutional, the petitioners would then have 90 days to collect roughly 35 thousand signatures of registered voters to get the referendum on the ballot.
The casino law is also the subject of a lawsuit by a developer who objects to a provision that affords a federally recognized Indian tribe a period of time to exclusively negotiate for a casino license in southeastern Massachusetts.