Barbour Calls Special Session on Katrina

[Rose Siding]

JACKSON, Miss. -- Gov. Haley Barbour is calling Mississippi legislators into a special session next week and says he'll let them debate whether to let coast casinos build on land.

Barbour says he hopes for a "short, specific special session" dealing with Hurricane Katrina recovery issues, including a small-business loan program. The Aug. 29 storm killed at least 219 people in Mississippi and left a wide swath of destruction along the 80-mile coastline.

Debate over bringing casinos on land could turn contentious. A spokesman for the state's largest religious group, the Mississippi Baptist Convention, told The Associated Press after the hurricane that the convention might push lawmakers to outlaw casinos altogether.

Barbour said he's not yet taking a public stand about whether to allow casinos on land. But he controls what lawmakers consider during special sessions, and if he didn't want the discussion, he could simply not put the issue on the agenda.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/19/AR2005091901490.html

[bluestateguy]

1. I hope they bring the casinos in

It's, of course, their call, but the state has a low tax base anyway, and not enough rich people to make up for the loss of revenue (though I would favor increased taxes on the wealthy anyway).

But if Barbour signs off on land-based casinos then it may be bye-bye religious right for him come 2007.

[KoKo]

2. I don't know the Religious Right seems to have supported the Casinos

with a "wink and a nod." I read alot about those casino's just before Katrina because I wondered what would happen to them in a hurricane. There was a really interesting legal study done on how much they REALLY bring in to Miss's economy and how much they "take out."

I wasn't sure after I read the report that they were such a good thing. If you are interested I'll PM you here with it. It's a PDF File and an interesting read if one wants to get into it over a weekend.

The article said that the casino's bring in many of their own workers from out of state and that local Mom & Pop businesses had been hurt. But, given that the area has been for decades the poorest in the South it's hard not to see that they needed to do something. But, who did it help? Was it only the Casino owners? And, what about the people who spend lots of time gambling in them...some of them very poor. The report compared it to Atlantic City, NJ..which I was familiar with where schools and the community were supposed to be revived and thriving when they turned Atlantic City into "Vegas East." It didn't work out that way. Organized crime and poverty were everywhere.

Who knows...but I'll dig out the PDF if you are really interested.