The Mayor of Chicopee Must Really Want Casinos

Now that I've been to a number of Democratic State Conventions, it's not uncommon for me to get all sorts of political mail. Today, when I came home, I found that between my wife and myself, we had gotten not one but four brochures from the Mayor of Chicopee, Michael Bissonnette, with the header: "Resort-Style Casinos: For our Towns. For our towns. For our cities. For a better Massachusetts." Now, I understand that it's a hassle to go through your database and make sure you're only sending one piece of mail to a household -- I did this myself during Susan Falkoff's campaign -- but unless Mayor Bissonnette thinks that the number of mail pieces we get will reflect just how much he wants to be able to have a casino in Chicopee, there's really no reason we should be getting four.

The piece itself describes resort casinos as "a predictable and reliable source of local aid" and details just how much our cities and towns need revenue. It claims that resort-style casinos would "create upwards of $500 million in new annual tax revenues" -- above and beyond the revenue generated through job creation -- and notes that we "can't keep paying for schools, public safety, and roads and bridges in Connecticut." All in all, it makes a good case for increased local aid, but it really avoids the question of whether resort-style casinos are the best way to go about increasing such aid.

If anyone wants a copy, let me know. I have plenty of extras.

[UPDATE]: wbennet over at BMG called the mayor's office to find out who was behind the mailing. The answer was, of course, a lobbying firm: The Dewey Square Group.