Dan Hill, 2010 State Senate Questionnaire Responses

1. What are your top three agenda priorities and how will you take action on these priorities?

Legislative Priorities - Sustainable Communities, Healthy Families

The concept of "sustainability" means ensuring that quality of life factors, such as economic prosperity, clean air and water, safe and decent housing, and cultural diversity, are available to our generation and future generations. Based on our current pace of consumption, the standard of living we enjoy today is unsustainable. Tough choices need to be made in our daily habits and rituals. As a representative democracy, we expect our elected forms of government to steer us in the right direction, enabling us to make these changes for the good of the whole.

Our state government has done a fair job, but more needs to be done. We need to dispel the notion that economic stability and environmental stability are mutually exclusive. There are policies and programs that accomplish both objectives. We need to steer state policy in that direction. Here are a couple of examples:

• Clean Energy and Green Technology Incubators. We should develop a program that facilitates economic growth in these sectors of the new economy by providing facilities and technical assistance to companies and entrepreneurs who are willing to stay in Massachusetts to develop their technologies and products. This program will enable Massachusetts to compete with California and other states for the lead in the development of clean energy technologies, and will promote the eventual conversion of dirty, inefficient energy and transportation systems to ones that are clean and green. Such a program would be a particularly good fit in this state senate district, matching our intellectual capital with a skilled and available workforce.
  
  
• Phasing Out Fossil Fuel Taxi Cabs and Tour Buses. There's no good reason why we can't require a percentage of all new taxi ca bs and buses licensed by the state, cities, and towns to be hybrid vehicles, or to run on cleaner fuels such as natural gas. Likewise, publicly-owned vehicles should be "green" wherever possible.

A sustainable economy requires a sustainable public education system. We need to be smarter with our education policies. Our teachers and administrators are overburdened with bureaucratic paperwork and legal affairs. I want our teachers and administrators to spend more time with our children and less time with lawyers. The focus of teaching should be on learning, not test ta king. We also need do a better job of helping underprivileged residents get the education they deserve and need. Everyone benefits, for example, when teenage mothers and fathers can stay in school and receive an education or training in a marketable skill, and we should facilitate that by fully funding day care and social services for those students.

2. Do you support instituting a progressive income tax in Massachusetts?

Yes, I would support a move in this direction, but not until our economy has stabilized.

3. PDS has taken a position against expanding predatory gambling in Massachusetts as a way to increase state revenue and local aid. What is your position on gambling casinos and slot machines?

The state unemployment rate reached 9.4% in December, double what it was a year ago, and the Commonwealth is facing a $2.75 billion budget gap. Massachusetts must look to unconventional sources of job creation and revenue production. Resort-style casinos - gaming facilities with associated restaurants, hotels and entertainment venues - should be part of the solution. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Murphy recently wrote, "[p]articularly in the hardest hit regions of the commonwealth, destination gaming holds out the potential for both short and long term economic opportunity."

I support Governor Patrick's proposal for a limited introduction of casino gambling in Massachusetts. Specifically, I would support the construction of two resort-style casinos, with vigorous state and local oversight. Further, I would work hard to bring one of those casinos to the Wonderland/Suffolk Downs complex in Revere and East Boston, to mitigate job losses from the closure of the dog track and to stimulate residual economic growth in that region.

The Economic Benefits of Resort-Style Casinos

The construction of resort-style casinos would significantly boost tax revenues for the Commonwealth, which would then mitigate growing cuts in the state’s budget. Governor Patrick has projected that the Commonwealth can rely on $200 million in license fees, as well as annual operating fees of at least 27% of gross gaming revenues.

Concerns that casinos would simply divert revenue income from the Massachusetts Lottery Commission, an important source for local aid, are misplaced. Casinos attract a completely different spectrum of the gaming market. Moreover, resort-style casinos in Massachusetts will recapture tax revenues from Massachusetts residents who patronize casinos in Connecticut and Rhode Island, and will generate additional income from residents of abutting states like New Hampshire and Maine.

Second, and more importantly, the construction of a resort-style casino at Wonderland/Suffolk Downs would generate between 3,000 and 10,000 construction-related jobs and 5,000 permanent resort-management jobs in this region. My support of this legislation would be contingent on the creation of permanent jobs with benefits, and project labor agreements for each phase of construction.

Finally, I’m confident that if planned correctly, the construction of a resort casino at Wonderland/Suffolk Downs would stimulate residual growth and development in that region, and could transform Revere Beach into the popular resort destination that it once was. This property is served by the MBTA’s Blue Line, which would make the resort and its residual attractions accessible to the masses, and consistent with smart growth and transit-oriented development principles.

If tax revenues were the only reason to support this idea, I would want to see additional, independent studies before making a final judgment. There are credible arguments that lottery sales could diminish, or that Governor Patrick’s projected licensing and operating fees are too high, and therefore we should have better predictive analyses of the financial costs and benefits of resort casinos for the state. However, the employment and residual growth benefits are sufficient in my opinion to move forward.

Addressing Social Concerns

Gambling addiction is a legitimate concern. This problem is not new, however, and it is important to have an honest debate over whether a new resort-style casino in metropolitan Boston would significantly increase the severity of existing addictions, or encourage new additions. I question whether the construction of one resort casino in Boston will have any appreciable impact. Before Foxwoods opened in 1992, Wonderland alone saw thousands of visitors every day. Those patrons did not simply disappear – they moved their gaming to Connecticut.

In 2008, Governor Patrick proposed increasing current funding for gambling-related treatment and prevention to 50 times its current rate if it dedicates 2.5% of the gross gaming revenues to a compulsive gambling prevention fund. Any legislation to allow casino gambling in Massachusetts can require casino owners to promote responsible gambling practices, to contribute to gambling prevention funds, and ensure that their employees are educated in recognizing and addressing the warning signs of problem gambling. I would also propose that resort casinos in Massachusetts be regulated by an independent, quasi-state authority, which would be responsible for auditing not just the financial success of casinos but the effectiveness of addiction prevention programs.

4. How have you as and office-holder or private citizen worked to support progressive causes and issues at the state and local level?

I am not an office-holder or a politician, which I believe positions me more in line with progressive thinking than any of the other candidates – I am not tied to any special interests, and therefore am free to exercise objective judgment on government reforms that are badly needed. As an attorney in private practice, I have championed environmental protection causes, and would be happy to elaborate on some of the cases I have worked on if that is of interest.

5. The parts of Somerville in your district include areas undergoing shifts in development that will affect the entire city of Somerville. What are your ideas for balancing affordable housing, business development, and creating/preserving open space in these parts of your district?

I have been a strong proponent of infusing rational planning into our state’s affordable housing policies. Moreover, our land use permitting policies must shift towards a regional planning basis to better incorporate principles of smart growth and transit-oriented development. I drafted the Act to Promote Regional Affordable Housing Planning, sponsored by Senator Panagiotakos (SB 657), which is current pending in the Housing Committee. See attached letter describing the bill.

6. What budget items would you look to protect or increase? Please include specifics of what cuts or revenue increases you would support to pay for these budget items.

I couldn’t possibly answer this question completely without taking up a dozen pages. My focus on balancing the budget would be to scrub state government from inefficiencies, including closing income tax loopholes such as the hedge fund “carried interest” loophole, and closing the MassHealth asset-shielding loophole. I would centralize the provision of legal services by state governmental attorneys. I would increase the tobacco sales tax and gas tax. I would not support the cutting or capping of the Mass. Film Tax Credit subsidy. I would preserve day care funding for parents who are finishing their high school education.

7. What is your stance on Election Day Voter Registration?

I support this reform initiative.

8. Please tell us your stance and how you would vote on the following potential ballot initiatives:

• Reduce the sales tax to 3%.

  I would oppose this measure – it would unnecessarily deprive the state of needed revenue.

• Eliminate the sales tax on alcoholic beverages.

  I would oppose this measure – it would unnecessarily deprive the state of needed revenue.

• Eliminate Chapter 40B.

  I would oppose this measure. A large part of my practice is Chapter 40B, and as such I have many substantive ideas on how our state housing policies can and should be reformed. Chapter 40B has unfortunately become our state’s de facto housing production tool. However, it is not the panacea for our housing woes – it only provides housing for a narrow segment of our population – families earning between 70% and 80% of the area median income for homeownership units, which is what is predominantly proposed by the private sector under the statute. We need a state housing policy that address the broad spectrum of our housing needs, including the homeless and destitute, to people who earn too much money to qualify for conventional affordable housing programs but not enough to afford to live in their own community. Chapter 40B has become a lightning rod for communities.

9. Do you support the green line extension being completed on time with a terminus at Route 16?

Yes.