Rep. Bosley Wins Over House, Crushes Slots Bill
House Members Defy Threats from AFL-CIO
       After six hours of impassioned speeches, the House handed a lopsided 100-55 victory to efforts of Rep. Dan Bosley (D-N. Adams) by voting down a proposal that would have allowed up to 8,000 slot machines in the state’s four race tracks. In the hours preceding the vote, Robert Haynes, president of the state AFL-CIO railed against opponents of the bill, and particularly against Speaker DiMasi in a speech with bill supporters, many who were employees of the tracks.
       Haynes said at the State House “I’ve been in this building a lot, and I’ll tell you, what’s happening to you is one of the most egregious things I’ve seen in a long time” referring to the House leadership’s overt pitches to kill the bill. Haynes promised that the AFL-CIO would count a vote against the slots bill as a vote against labor, and vowed that the union group will not support many of them in their re-election bids.
       Many of the reps voting against the bill were swayed by the report circulated last week by Rep. Bosley who is considered the House’s most vocal opponent of expanded gambling. He argued in the report that "authorizing slot machines at the Commonwealth's facilities will result in an annual deficit of $1,897,400" for the state, after factoring in tax revenues, regulatory costs, and the losses to the Lottery.
       Haynes also called the editorial board of the Boston Globe “self-righteous bastards” for an editorial yesterday concluding the “urgency for new revenue is not compelling enough today to alter forever the state's economy and character.”
       During the debate, some of the representatives in favor of expanded gaming brandished pictures of constituents who worked at the tracks, or called attention to the presence in the chambers of track employees. In the end however, such attempts at swaying the vote based on sentiment was in vain.
       As a conciliatory move, members motioned to have a voice vote on the simulcasting bill, which allows the tracks that are not having live races to broadcast races from other tracks, and draw revenue from off-track betting. The house quickly approved a special extension to allow the tracks to continue simulcasting to the end of the year after Rep. Bosley acknowledged that it was the right thing to do for the sake of the employees at the tracks.
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