OIB friend Hartford Courant columnist Rick Green writes “The folks at the Connecticut Lottery Corporation apparently think that a $3 billion deficit is the right time to revive this corpse.”
The corpse is Keno, something Connecticut Lottery officials debated in executive session the other day. Maybe Keno is the state budget’s version of Frankenstein’s monster, stitching together body parts and shooting it full of lightning to wipe out the state deficit.
What’s Keno? The Hartford Courant, sourcing Connecticut Lottery Corp., explains …
Lottery-style keno is a betting game in which players pick a set of numbers from 1 to 80 by buying and filling out a play slip from a retailer, such as a bar or restaurant.
Bets typically range from $1 to $10. Payouts can range from $1 to $1 million. The state lottery draws 20 winning numbers, publicizing new results every 5 to 6 minutes, by television, for instance. Winnings are determined by the amount of the wager and the number of drawn numbers that a player matches.
Connecticut is already one of the biggest bookies in the country, why not add Keno and parcel out the revenue to all the cities! Yeah, baby, fire up those taverns, gin mills, bars, mom and pop stores, and restaurants including Testo’s Restaurant owned by Bridgeport Democratic Town Chair Mario Testa who still hasn’t given up hope for a casino in the city 15 years after the Connecticut Legislature led by Fairfield County Gold Coast pols torpedoed it. Too much traffic, too much this and that, they reasoned.
Mario even threw his support behind Ned Lamont for governor hoping for a casino for the city. Mario and Ned had a little winking game (although Mario did most of the winking), I’ll support you, you become governor and you push through a casino for the city on the basis that the state is broke and needs more revenue. A funny thing happened on the way to Ned sizing up the curtains to the governor’s mansion–he got his ass kicked by Dan Malloy in the primary.
Still, is it preposterous to think a little more gaming revenue is part of a menu in arguably the worst economic times since the Great Depression to stabilize the state budget? And maybe state employee concessions? And maybe tax hikes on the wealthy? And maybe open up Sunday liquor sales? And maybe allow municipalities authority to charge local sales taxes?
Governor-elect Dan Malloy says the budget picture is ugly. Well, you know what I say, get all the unpopular stuff out of the way fast and furious. (As long as it helps Bridgeport.)
An OIB salute to veterans!
I knew this was coming Lennie since 1994. I left my left-hand index finger in Hartford then, the Connecticut Legislators can go see if Hartford Hospital still has it in some freezer and use it for their economic experiment. Keno is like the gambling form of cigarettes. It will simply increase the level of poverty in Connecticut, it’s as addictive as smoking. I’m trying to stop smoking and save three thousand a year. I’ve just about stopped playing Lotto as the cigarettes are much more addictive.
People will simply use the money they planned to spend on all the other lottery games to play keno, a game which they won’t have to wait too long to see that they’ve lost.
I’m boycotting all forms of Connecticut lottery and prepare for the tax increase on cigarettes and gasoline.
I’m gonna try to make the pack of smokes I have, the last one. An idea just entered my head: If I just cut off my remaining nine fingers, I can help out with the Frankenstein project–as far as fingers are concerned–and since I won’t have fingers, I wouldn’t be able to smoke. Where is that damn guillotine? Wait a minute! How then would I be able to type?
Just what we need is more gambling. Let’s get the poor and middle class to spend their precious few dollars chasing a dream that will never come. If the state does this it gives the politicians in Hartford a bigger slush fund to play with.
They meaning those in Hartford need to make the tough decisions and make the necessary cuts in the state’s budget to erase the deficit. Going after the poor with more gambling schemes is just wrong.
Why would a bar or restaurant want to take away from their margins by selling Keno? Keno commission is penny ante. I think it would be keener if we expanded the slot compact to Bridgeport and New Haven simulcast facilities. We could call it the Slot Palace at Shoreline Star. We already have a Slut Palace in town. Now that would be Keen Oh! It could be billed as a “Shore Thing!”
The state legislature is going to have to go against everything it’s done in the past which is stop spending money we don’t have. It is going to have to make some very hard spending cuts.
If the state wants to raise money then I will bring up a sore subject. It’s time to reinstitute TOLLS on our borders. We are the only state on the east coast with not one single toll. If you put it on the borders entering into Connecticut that means out-of-state trucks and drivers will pay their fair share for road maintenance.
I know someone will bring up the Stratford accident many years ago and that was a shame. That toll plaza had a design flaw that begged for that accident to happen. The people in Conn can traverse the highways with no tolls until they leave Conn and then reenter.
To those who are going to scream about this idea do you write to New York, New Jersey or any other state when you pay their tolls about having to pay their tolls? NO you pay and go on your way.
Connecticut! For Whom the Bell Tolls!!! How about the $118 million for a railroad station in West Haven? 600 parking spaces. How’s that intermodal thing working out for us?
*** Just another way to turn a poor man’s dream into a gambling nightmare! The more $ ideas the state comes up with the more they waste on B/S. *** What’s left in your wallets? ***
Town Committee said, “Its time to reinstitute TOLLS on our borders.” I agree! But the tolls must be re-instituted for the right reasons and purpose. If the tolls return, the money generated should not be used to reduce or pay off the state deficit; it must be used to pay for the Bonding of roads and highway improvements. Malloy wants to raise the gas tax to do this. The tolls don’t and should not have to be just on our borders. Tolls can reduce traffic jams. If the roads are free (Freeway), expect everyone to use it as much as they want. If the New York City bridges were free, New England would be shut down for quite a long time as everyone living in New York and New Jersey would be using the bridges instead of finding alternative routes or using transit (trains, buses).
Want to learn more on how transit affects development (vise versa) and how it relates to tolls? Here is one source that’s so simple to understand, even the gullible in Bridgeport should be able to follow:
www .moderntransit.org/fmt/fmt09.html
Oh, yeah! I almost forgot to say:
“Happy Veterans Day, Dick Blumenthal.”
Who was spotted talking to Bill Finch about the open position of Finance Director? None other than former B-port official and former Stratford Finance wiz John Norko.
Word is that Mario T was close by to observe these discussions.
Does Bill think he can get on the chair’s good side by hiring Mario’s friend?
Or does Mario think he can get a big foot in the door of City Hall by having the Finance Director keeping Mario informed of what is really going on?
Inquiring minds want to know …
John Norko would be an incredible asset to this and future administrations. Talk about homegrown talent.
Ask the new mayor of Stratford what he thinks of Norko. Mario was standing by while Norko was negotiating with Finch? Who is Norko using for a reference, Miron? Someday the people of Bridgeport will wake up.
*** Out with the old regime & back with the older one! *** Like grains of sand through an hourglass, so are the days of our City Hall. *** FORGETABOUTIT ***