Boston Business Journal included an extensive list of expenditures that's worth reviewing. Please take the time!
The only way to assure the safety of the Commonwealth of such excesses is to REPEAL THE CASINO DEAL!
February 24, 2014 - BOSTON – Repeal the
Casino Deal’s chairman, John
Ribeiro, responded today to an announcement by Steve Crosby, the state’s
top gaming official, that he would investigate spending by the Mass. Gaming Commission on the heels of a
Boston
Business Journal report of a Commission employees spending
extravagant amounts of money on expenses including room service, last minute
flights around the world and hotel bills, while often receiving reimbursement
from casino giants.
Ribeiro noted that while the gaming commission
claims to be exempt from state public employee spending and travel guidelines
because the commission was created with money from a state “rainy day fund”
rather than a line item appropriation, Attorney General Martha Coakley
contradicted that theory in a 2011 letter to Secretary William Galvin. In that
letter she wrote that the law creating the state gaming commission was not
subject to a referendum vote because the law appropriates money to fund the
commission.
Massachusetts law states that "[n]o law . . .
that appropriates money for the current or ordinary expenses of the commonwealth
or for any of its departments, boards, commissions or institutions shall be the
subject of a referendum petition."
Statement of Casino repeal chairman John
Ribeiro on Mass. Gaming Commission spending
“It’s about time for Crosby to look into this
extravagant spending. It shouldn’t have taken a newspaper report and public
outrage to highlight the need for spending controls.
It is disheartening to see that the members of
the Massachusetts Gaming Commission have disrespected taxpayers with lavish
spending, like one employee’s room service tab that totaled upwards of $500, a
dinner bill at $111 per plate and plane tickets that rung up at three times the
cost of economy flights.
Furthermore, for state commissioner Enrique
Zuniga to claim that the very casino giants that the commission should be
investigating and policing picking up tabs for flights, hotels and gourmet meals
does not create a conflict is absurd.
This report just highlights the casino moguls’
ability to buy their way into Massachusetts communities, and the gaming
commission’s disrespect for the taxpayers for whom they are supposed to be
working.
These findings create a reason for the state’s
voters to distrust the gaming commission and yet another reason for all
residents of Massachusetts to demand the right to vote on this change to
Massachusetts’ moral fabric.”
Contact: John
Ribeiro -- 617-981-4177
Stop Casinos For
Good!
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