If at first you don’t succeed try, try again? We have to give it to Ohio issue 6 for persistence. But Ohioans have once again decided that the 600 million dollar casino was not in the best interest of the state with a 63 percent to 37 percent difference when 93 percent of the vote had been counted.
Arguments made in favor of passing Issue 6 include:
- It would bring 5,000 jobs to Ohio. A declining economy makes the potential of new jobs very inviting, therefore a main focus of their campaign.
- The casino would generate $800 million a year in revenue, with $240 million to be split among Ohio counties based on population. Keeping Ohioans who currently go to the Argosy Casino in Indiana, 30 miles from downtown Cincinnati, in Ohio to gamble.
Arguments made against Issue 6 include:
- Ohio would fork out a $1 billion give-away to a private casino company; whose base is in a different state.
- There is no guarentee that Ohioans would get any of the jobs promised. The casino could bring people from out of state trained and already working the casino circuit .
- The possibility of not taxing means no money for counties as promised
- Moral issues like families loosing money needed for living expenses and the invitation of more high profile crimes to Ohio.
- Many legal loopholes provided in the wording of the initiative allows for more than one casino to be built in the state by Indian tribes which may also not be taxed.
The state of Ohio spoke very clear on the casino issue as it has since 1990. As tempting as 5000 new jobs looked to Ohio’s troubled economy and despite the potential of new traffic for local businesses, there was just more problems than Ohio was willing to buy.
1 comment:
I think we should have "rolled the dice" on Issue 6. After the announcement today by DHL we are talking about a net loss of over 10 thousand jobs not counting the support jobs and revenue stream passage would have created.
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