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Three pronged approach with specific beneficiaries:
1 - State Lottery - Primary beneficiary- Public K-12 with language that prohibits reduction from general fund. Secondary beneficiary - Across the board tuition reduction for all bonafide Hi resident students to UH system.
2 - Cruise ship casinos (include superferry) - Primary beneficiary - Paid tuition for medical training in return for practice in Hawaii, ie 1 year paid = 2 year service Oahu/3 year service neighbor islands. Secondary beneficiary - medical tax credit to all permanent Hi residents.
3 - Full blown casinos & betting on Kahoolawe - Primary beneficiary - Hawaii infrastructure. Secondary beneficiary - reduced airfare between all islands EXCEPT Kahoolawe for all full time permanent Hi residents.
As for Hawaiian Beaches - nope
David
Ninole Resident
Ninole Resident
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Haven't we learned anything from the adventures of Marty McFly? In case you've forgotten, the link below will refresh your memory.
http://bttf.wikia.com/wiki/Biff_Tannen's_Pleasure_Paradise_Casino_&_Hotel
See you in the surf
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"If" casino gambling does come to the Big Island...they will no doubt put them in the multi million dollar hotels on the Kona side. With the Hawaiian Hotel industry seeing record vacancies at these big resorts plus mother nature acting up and polluting the kona side almost daily with vog, they need something quick to get the tourists back in the hotels or else!
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Waikoloa is already set up for it design wise. All they need is the neon LED's.
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Highly unlikely a private investor or resort operator will pick this location for a casino. The west side has all the resort style amenities and already possesses the up scale flavor. Puna could become viable if the area, as a whole, was improved enough to get over the "other side of the tracks" image, but that could take a decade or more of continuing improvements.
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Well they are successful on the reservations, which isn't necessarily prime real estate. If you build it, they will come. Just not in a residential area, please.
Carrie
"The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it." Galadriel - LOTR
Carrie Rojo
"Even the smallest person can change the course of the future..." Galadriel LOTR
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You can't compare NA gaming to investor/developer casinos. NA communities must locate the casinos under Indian Gaming on land they own and is recognized as tribal land. So in NA cases, the location is not first dictated by best development opportunity, but by land restrictions. If the land is located 200 miles from anything, that's where the casinos will be built. If development sprawl is now along the doorsteps of tribal land, the casino will be along that doorstep.
If Hawaii was to legalize gaming as a development opportunity, the west side would be the prime location for casinos. Unless Hawaii gives concessions to locate it in Puna, I don't see any developer/investor willing to pick the east side over the west side.
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I see, Bob. There was a casino built within oh, 2 miles from the border of NA land where we lived. But there are also casinos that were wayyyy out there and they had no trouble attracting gamblers to make the trip. I guess where there's a will, there's a way. I have to agree that the west side would most likely be chosen for this type of "entertainment"...either way the education system would benefit, right?
Personal opinion of course, but it just seems in hard financial times the State should do what it can to restore funds...even just a lottery would benefit the State. There are plenty of people who fly to Las Vegas to spend their money there anyway. If that money remains in Hawaii, it's good for us.
Carrie
"The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it." Galadriel - LOTR
Carrie Rojo
"Even the smallest person can change the course of the future..." Galadriel LOTR
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From the midwest state I am from (ILL), lottery money "went for education".... but not quite how most people thought.
The districts still made their request to the state, and the state allocated money to the districts, from the general fund.... the lottery went to assist paying for the general fund request money to the school districts. There was never a surge of money that went to the schools, they got pretty much what they had always gotten.... (the general fund had more ways to spend money, as the school portion was 'subsidized' by the lottery)
From that experience, I look at 'lottery for schools' as a tax ponzi scheme, just another way of increasing the tax revenues... but making it more palatable.... & I really doubt that it will be different here (the 2 states are way too alike!)
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Carrie,
Where gaming revenue for the state/county goes is up to the state/county to decide. It does not have to go for education. They often say it will go for education because that makes people more likely to agree to gaming.
Also the funding wasn't just education. Education was highlighted and talked about the most, but that could be a small percentage of the actual gaming revenue. The bulk could be used in the general fund or for EOPRF (Elected Officials Party and Retirement Fund). So the people have to be diligent in understanding where the revenue is going and not be so easily fooled by a good PR campaign.
Carey,
Yes indeed, that is a very real reality. People want gaming revenue to go for good causes (education, cultural, health, etc) but that did not mean the money was "In Addition To" and most often was "In Lieu Of".
Some states did create special funds that gaming revenue was deposited into and doled out according to grant style funding. To make it additional money, they required the state to set a bench line funding based on historical spending. So the state was forced to continue funding the good causes at levels that would exist had gaming revenue not been available, and the gaming revenue was additional funding.
Unfortunately even that went wrong as money wasn't always spent for needed purposes but extravagant purposes. Instead of funding a drama class for a year, it went to install marble over the cement floors in the hall. Instead of funding repairs to a cultural building, it went for travel expenses to visit other cultural places for the governing boards.
