The Responsibility of voting 'Yes' on November 19

If you are one of the folks who plan to vote ‘yes’ on the casino referendum on November 19th, you need to consider that that your vote carries significant responsibility with it.
Voting ‘yes’ and walking away thinking someone else will take care of everything will not get you what you might be expecting from a ‘yes’ vote.

It has been reported that if one third of the projected annual $25 million dollars for property tax to be eventually paid should the casino be built in Milford is applied directly to the tax levy, the average homeowner can expect a $500 annual reduction in their property tax bill. That’s $125 dollars every 3 months.  To actually realize that savings, one would have to take that $125 quarterly savings and set it aside. If you are like I suspect most of us are these days, that $125 every 3 months will simply slip thru your fingers and be absorbed and unaccounted for in your daily and weekly spending. Take the family out to dinner twice during that quarter and maybe fill the gas tank and that tax reduction is gone. Or perhaps that $125 will be your gambling allowance for that 3 month period.

At the end of the fiscal year, having saved $500 on your property tax, what will it get you.  You could pay your cell phone bill for a couple of months -- or maybe just one month depending on the number of teenagers in your family.  You might be able to buy a set of new tires or gas up the SUV four, maybe five times. Gonna need that gas ‘cuz you’ll be sitting in traffic longer given those 7 million visitors a year. But it's gonna be one or the other, not all of the above.

It has been reported that if one half of the projected $25 million dollars for property tax to be eventually paid should the casino be built in Milford is applied directly to the tax levy, the average homeowner can expect a $1200 annual reduction in their property tax bill. On a quarterly basis, that is $300 dollars every 3 months.  To actually realize that savings, one would have to take that $300 quarterly savings and set it aside.

And what if a $1200 annual tax savings comes to the average homeowner in the event that this casino is eventually built in Milford. What could one do with $300 ‘extra’ every four months?  One could get an additional 32” TV each quarter; make a down payment that heating bill. Perhaps that will be your gambling allowance for those 3 months. If one were to save up that $300 quarterly savings over the course if the fiscal year, I’ll leave it to you to determine if the accumulated $1200 would pay for a week of skiing or a trip to Disney during February vacation for you and the kids.

But if you rent an apartment -- there are 4,200 of them in Milford -- it will be the rare (OK, extremely rare -- well, it won't happen) landlord who will pass the property tax savings along to you as a tenant.  You might be in for some minor repairs but a reduction in your monthly rent will not be coming to you based on your landlord’s property tax savings. Go ahead ask your landlord before the 19th. ( Hey, do I get a break on my rent if you get on break on your property tax because of the casino?) In fact, creating 3,500 jobs in Milford may cause more people to want to move to Milford which would put more demand on the supply of rental housing which would serve to drive rents higher.  Your landlord might eventually get a reduction in property tax and increased rents as a result of your ‘yes’ vote on November 19.

But there will be no refund check.

If one third of the projected annual $25 million dollars for property tax to be eventually paid should the casino be built in Milford is applied directly to the tax levy, what happens to the other two thirds.

Well, the town will spent it.  Town government will grow and I am sure all you "yes' voters like bigger government. Committees that do not exist today will spring up. Needs you didn’t know you fulfilled will suddenly become in urgent need of filling. For example, I am not aware that any money has been specifically earmarked for the Board of Health but with 10 additional restaurants to inspect and 500 more hotel rooms, surely an additional inspector will be needed.  Perhaps an assistant BoH director will be needed for the given 7 million visitors a year. An army may move on it's stomach, but government moves on its money. Government is the Money Monster.

Milford, like many towns in the Commonwealth, has an unfunded liability of millions of dollars in it’s retirement obligation for town employees. The school department has many employees not covered by the Commonwealth’s teacher retirement system.  There are police, fire, highway department, secretaries for all departments, Town Hall employees, inspectors and so on, all dependent on the Town for retirement pay.  They have earned it, and we have promised to pay it.

If I were a member of the Milford police or firefighters union, I would be pushing for full funding of the local retirement plan just before I would be pushing for a pay raise.  Town employees have been held to a 1% or 2% pay raise for the past several years.  Were I still a union member, I would see the projected annual $25 million dollars for property tax to be eventually paid should the casino be built in Milford as the place to stop those pitiful pay raises.

The school system must have well over 300 teachers and administrators. I have no accurate count as to the number of police, fire fighters, highway department, secretaries, librarians, inspectors, etc. that provide the town services we enjoy. But with only one third of the projected annual $25 million dollars for property tax to be eventually paid should the casino be built in Milford going to taxpayers, it will be a bonanza of pay raises for Milford’s employees. Submit your job application now.

And you, the person who voted ‘yes’ on the 19th, will have no vote on any of it.

Union contracts are negotiated outside of Town Meeting.  Long gone are the days of police and fire fighter salaries being settled on the floor of Milford’s Town Meeting. Selectmen now award pay raises to many, if not all department heads, and Town Meeting gets to vote the funding to meet the contractual obligations that have been agreed to during negotiations with the unions.  I am not opposed to Town employees being better paid.  I'm just am pointing out one place the some of the projected casino property tax will go.

And, most of you 'Yes' voters reading this, will have nothing to say about it because you are not Town Meeting members. You will not be able to vote yes or no new projects. You will not be able to force a larger percentage of the windfall to be put on the tax levy. You will not be able to insist on the continuation of the dual tax rate.  You will not get a vote on any of those things. Union members may well insist on that the Town pay a larger percentage of their health care costs and there will be nothing you, the person who voted ‘yes’, can do about it.

So promoting this casino project based on increased revenues for the Town, is shortsighted for most of you. Because most of you won’t see any significant benefit over the long term.  And you won’t have a vote on how the bonanza gets spent.

And renters, well, your rent just might go up because that casino is promising thousands of jobs in $40,000 to $50,000 range and landlords will take note of that. Casino employees could become the most sought after tenants in the area.

There are lots of unintended consequences that can flow from taking on a project of this size.  Especially taking on a project in an industry that is so suspect that it must buy its way into a town by paying for the problems it’s going create (mitigation is the polite word for it) and then adding millions of dollars of bribes and fire trucks and cops in order to get the local folks to surrender their town.

So vote ‘yes’ on the 19th and it will be the last opportunity you will have to say anything about the money.

 “There’s no rainbow here”, said Christine Boyle.  And voting 'yes' won't bring a rainbow.

P.S. You can argue with the numbers I chose to use.  But make a better effort and argue with concepts.