A 6-member panel of House and Senate members met behind closed doors again on Wednesday.
BOSTON – Gov. Deval L. Patrick expressed concerns that state legislators could fail to reach agreement on a bill to legalize casinos unless they tone down the rhetoric and deal with a bill that he said includes a lot of moving parts.
“We’re not going to get a bill without a compromise between the House and Senate, and there isn’t going to be a compromise until folks start trying to engage with each other and dial down some of the rhetoric,” the governor said during a visit with reporters at the Statehouse Press Gallery on Tuesday.
Patrick’s comments injected himself into the middle of legislative negotiations of a final casino bill. A six-member panel of House and Senate members met behind closed doors again on Wednesday in an attempt to reach a compromise on different casinos bills approved in the House and the Senate.
Patrick appeared to call for greater communication among legislative leaders.
“There are a lot of messages being sent through what someone described as carrier pigeons,” Patrick said. “I think there has to be some conversation directly with the principals.”
If a bill is signed into law, the Mohegan Sun is planning to bid for a casino license to build a proposed $600 million casino resort in Palmer across from Exit 8 of the Massachusetts Turnpike. Other casino companies may also surface with proposals for Western Massachusetts if a bill is approved, legislators and other observers have said.
A member of the legislative negotiating panel, Sen. Stanley C. Rosenberg, D-Amherst, refused to comment on Wednesday as he walked into the closed meeting. Rosenberg would not stop for a reporter for The Republican, who was roped off from a section of a hallway used by Rosenberg in front of the House chamber.
Another member of the negotiating panel, Rep. Paul K. Frost, R-Auburn, said Patrick’s comments sounded contradictory.
“I get confused with the governor, his comments about toning down the rhetoric, yet he tones it up,” Frost said. “He draws lines in the sand. Maybe he just wants some attention. Obviously, he is going to have a great say in what is going happen in the end.”
“I don’t know if the governor considers us members of the conference committee carrier pigeons or not,” Frost said.
Patrick and the Senate have opposed slot machines for the state’s two horse tracks and two former dog tracks. House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, a son of a track worker who has two racetracks in his district, led approval of a bill in the House that calls for 750 slot machines for each track and two casinos. The Senate bill has three casino resorts.
Patrick appeared to contribute to the rhetoric when he said that slots at the tracks would be a “no-bid contract” for the racetracks. “My position on slots at the tracks hasn’t changed,” Patrick said.
DeLeo on Monday reiterated that any compromise bill should have a component for slots at the tracks.
Asked during an appearance on New England Cable News in Boston if House negotiators would agree to a bill without slots at the tracks, DeLeo said, “I’ll never say never, because I think that’s part of the conference committee and what they should be doing, but I would say it’s a very important aspect of the bill I want to see there.”
Kathleen C. Norbut of Monson, president of United to Stop Slots in Massachusetts, said it’s old news that legislators and the governor are in a stalemate over an issue as a legislative sessions winds down.
Norbut said Patrick should be focusing on numerous problems with the bill such as a shortage of money for helping communities offset the effects of casinos and the lack of an independent analysis on the costs versus the benefits of casinos.
“This is a bad bill,” Norbut said. “It has many deeply flawed components and frankly deserves not to go forward.”
Patrick said he is concerned that other bills are piling up before the end of formal legislative sessions on July 31. Patrick, for example, is seeking action on his bill to block gun owners from buying more than one firearm within 30 days. Patrick wants to limit numerous gun purchases by people who then turn around and sell the guns to felons or other unlicensed people.
The House and the Senate are also negotiating a final bill to impose new limits on employers getting access to criminal records of job applicants.