Boston Mayor Marty Walsh has unleashed another round of unreasonable demands in his misguided attempt to secure lucrative “host community” status in the Greater Boston casino race. The mayor is overplaying his hand.
How far does Walsh plan to take all this? If he eventually wins his argument on the merits — an expensive long shot, it would seem — there will be no casinos in greater Boston for the foreseeable future. No new jobs for his friends in organized labor. And that’s why we continue to assume that this is all a rather elaborate game of chicken.
But in the meantime Walsh risks exposing himself as a hypocrite for challenging one very basic premise of a law that he helped to enact as a state rep: A “host community” is the one where a casino is located.
Walsh has yet to accept that casinos in Revere and Everett are not located in Boston, presumably because some residents of East Boston and Charlestown refuse to accept it.
The latest salvo comes from a city lawyer challenging the process the Gaming Commission has set up to make a final determination on Boston’s status, calling it a “thinly veiled attempt to ‘stack the deck’ against the city.” The city is also demanding that Chairman Stephen Crosby recuse himself from deliberations.
There were indeed legitimate questions to be raised about Crosby’s previous business relationship with an individual who had a financial interest in the land where one of the proposed casinos would be built.
But let’s face it — Team Walsh is now just muddying the waters.
Walsh can state that Boston is a rightful “host” of casinos in other towns. He can also state that the moon is made of green cheese — it doesn’t make it so.
“We did not ask the commission if we were a host community; we informed them that we are. We expect the applicants to look at the facts and negotiate with us as such,” Walsh’s spokeswoman said.
Well, then. Next time we get a parking ticket we won’t ask for its dismissal — we’ll “inform” Walsh’s City Hall that we’re not paying it.