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on my post "Prince George's works hard to bring back gambling ..." Implicit in my post was the idea that those
who benefit directly and immediately rarely are obvious preferring to remain
hidden while those who will have to pay the long term costs, and there will be
long term costs, are the well-known, the tax payers. While I have no doubt that
a gambling facility will make money for someone, my point was that with the
coming of on-line gambling old assumptions about profitability in the
traditional formats casinos and buildings will need to be reviewed; that once
again we look to the past without modification for our future good ideas. And
just a note in passing, if gambling were such a good idea how come Bethesda and
Potomac are not clamoring for a gambling operation?
Anonymous correctly identifies
county-wide contractual opportunities but in
no way states how this is going to happen. I for one see nothing that is
going to keep outside the county vendors from taking their cut of the pie. And
as for jobs, we specialize in minimum wage jobs. We lose super grade scientist
research position at BARC and say nothing while crowing about the coming wealth
from croupier positions that may be made obsolete by on-line gaming.
Anonymous
and I completely agree about mismanagement of local government a point that I
allude to implicitly. The question for Anonymous is given that he agrees that
some areas do not benefit, why he thinks we shall do it better; what facts does
he present that demonstrate Prince George's County's track record in this area?
And for the record Anonymous worries about one sided fact presentation but
cites not one example or any authorities - just asks the tax payers to trust
him.
Anonymous points out that Prince
George's County gets 5% of what is left over, while the rest of Maryland gets
62%...which is my point exactly - Prince George's County bears the costs and
the rest of the State's counties benefits by not having to deal with gambling in their
community, a convenient dumping (externalizing business costs) as usual on to
our great county and our neighborhoods.
I, not anonymously, am not
against a gaming establishment as long as tax dollars are not used in any
fashion for roads, infrastructure, security or tax abeyance. Prince George's
County needs a cornucopia of business opportunities; the tax payer, however, should be held harmless for the inevitable clean-up that come from known
externalizations of clean-up costs associated with this or any other industry. Anonymous and
I do agree in the end game; we need to exercise our vote and put accountable people
into office - people accountable to the many and not just the powerful few.
"It is always interesting when one side tells their story and decides to leave out very important facts so as to keep people uninformed and uneducated so they may influence them to make a decision that really does not benefit them but benefits another group.
We must realize that those areas that already have gambling and are not benefiting from the revenue generated are doing so because of mismanagement by the local government who are entrusted to act on behalf of the citizens. Correct the mismanagement and those areas would benefit tremendously from the additional revenue and jobs creation created by the taxes levied by the state and county.
Most states with gambling levy a tax at a significantly lower rate than does Maryland. Colorado levies a 20% revenue tax while Maryland levies a 67% revenue tax. That means 67% of all revenue generated from slots goes to the state of Maryland of which 5% goes to Prince George's County for them to do whatever they want and the other 62% goes directly to the state for Maryland to decide how they want to split the tax up amongst the counties for such things as education, public health services, public safety, homelessness and transportation improvements.
This means that the establishment operating the casino only gets 33% of the revenue to keep the casino operating and to show a profit.
Mismanagement is the root of all evil. Your entire arguement is directed at where the benefits are going that are created by gambling because you readily admit that wealth will be created through gambling. The question is for who. We must control and ensure that the thousands of jobs created by gambling are directed towards our community here in Prince George's county just as we must control the Billions of Dollars of small business contract opportunities that will be created as well. They must not go to surrounding counties, Virginia, or Washington, DC but remain here within Prince George's county.
The 62% of the casino revenue taken in by the state must be allocated in a way that fairly reflects the needs of the state but takes into account and rewards the location of where the gambling facility is located. Our Prince George's County State Delegation must assert itself and ensure our County receives its more than fair share of the casino tax.
Finally, we must ensure that we have Minority and Prince George's County equity ownership in any gambling facility or gaming internet venue that will derive its revenue from our County residents. This helps to keep the wealth and associated benefits within our County.
What is at stake here is billions of dollars and job creation in an economy that is down and people are losing their jobs and their families are hurting.
DO NOT TELL ME, THAT WE IN PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY ARE NOT SMART ENOUGH TO CORRECTLY MANAGE THE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS AND NEW JOBS THAT WILL BE GENERATED BY GAMBLING. VOTE AND PUT THE RIGHT PEOPLE IN OFFICE. OUR CHILDREN'S FUTURE IS AT STAKE. WE MUST NOT BE AFRAID TO ACCEPT THE BENEFITS DERIVED FROM THE GAMING INDUSTRY WHILE WATCHING ALL AROUND US REAP THOSE BENEFITS FROM OUR HARD EARNED MONEY."
1 comment:
Mr. Thompson writes again that he supports gambling but questions the mismanagement of the potential tax revenue generated and the supposed benefits derived from the increased county and state taxes. He then questions Prince Georgians decision making as if we are incapable as he wonders why if gambling were such a good idea how come Bethesda and Potomac are not clamoring for a gambling operation?
These two areas have been bolstered by BRAC, the influx of government jobs, and technology. For some odd reason or another our US Representatives, Congressman Steny Hoyer and Congressman Chris Van Hollen who are two of the highest ranking Congressmen have not been able or choose not to move the above into Prince George's County to bolster our economy. We not only have the government not wanting to move into our County but there is also a lack of private businesses desiring to move into Prince George's County. Our residents need jobs. We must either somehow figure out how to capitalize off the businesses who are willing to move here and incentivize others to move here or we must learn to use our voting power and elect those into office who will look out after Prince Georgians and ensure we ge the types of jobs and businesses we deserve in our county.
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