NY ballot wording puts rosy spin on casinos

PHOTOGRAPHER: The Associated Press

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Want lower taxes? More money for your schools? More jobs?

A referendum on the November ballot promises all that and more to New Yorkers as politicians seek to change the state constitution to allow seven Las Vegas-style casinos.

The rosy language is raising some eyebrows among good-government advocates and those opposed to gambling.

“It has more spin than a roulette wheel,” said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

The optimistic theme of the referendum makes no mention that those claims are disputed by some researchers and doesn’t note the decline of some casinos from New Jersey’s Atlantic City to those run by Indian tribes, or the rise in problem gambling that can shatter families and increase crime.

The measure written by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature starts with three casinos upstate. It reads:

“The proposed amendment to section 9 of article 1 of the Constitution would allow the Legislature to authorize up to seven casinos in New York State for the legislated purposes of promoting job growth, increasing aid to schools, and permitting local governments to lower property taxes through revenues generated. Shall the amendment be approved?”

By comparison, an early draft mirrored most of New York’s dry, if dense, referenda. It stated simply: “The purpose of the proposed amendment to section 9 of article 1 of the constitution is to allow the Legislature to authorize and regulate up to seven casinos. If approved, the amendment would permit commercial casino gambling in New York state.”

Referenda are supposed summarize a law passed by the Legislature to change the constitution. The added benefits of tax breaks and school aid, however, aren’t listed in the law.

“This one seems particularly heavily spun,” said Gerald Benjamin, a political science professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz. “I don’t think there’s anything illegal about it … it’s OK, but I don’t think it’s good.”

He noted, for example, that the other four constitutional questions to be put to voters on the November ballot don’t read as advocacy to persuade voters. Those involve Adirondack land swaps, sewer projects and allowing judges to serve up to 80 years old.

Benjamin said a group could sue over the casino referendum language, but neither law nor the constitution requires an objective presentation of an issue to voters.

Melissa De Rosa, a spokeswoman for Cuomo, told The New York Times that her office had consulted with the Board of Elections on all six of the ballot proposals as part of “longstanding practice.”

But the ballot proposals “are ultimately voted on and adopted by the Board of Elections,” she added.

“These are not literally lies, but when read quickly are extremely deceptive and one-sided,” said Stephen Quentin Shafer, chairman of the Coalition Against Gambling in New York.

“The deceptive wording of this amendment on the ballot and the advancement of this late entry to ‘number one’ position are obvious moves to misinform and bias voters,” he said. “New Yorkers deserve better from our legislative leaders.”