Late this afternoon as the Massachusetts House of Representatives considered gaming legislation, Rep. Forry took to the floor and successfully pushed two amendments that would serve to protect the interests of small businesses and provide them a clear voice throughout casino development process.? Out of 154 filed amendments, Rep. Forry?s two amendments ? Numbers 119 and 120 ? were adopted by the full House and add two small business-focused voices to a key subcommittee tasked with evaluating community mitigation efforts and require the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to continually study the impact of casinos on small businesses in host and surrounding communities.
The full text of Rep. Forry?s floor speech is provided below:
?I want to thank the Chairman and his committee for all your hard work putting together this piece of legislation.
As Chairman of the Joint Committee on Community Development and Small Businesses, I have filed amendments to this legislation to strengthen the role small businesses play throughout the casino planning and development process.
The bill already states that working with small businesses is a key objective of the commission.? My amendments simply seek to further ensure that that objective is fulfilled.
They will ensure that small businesses are not only an objective but also an integral part of the commission?s process from research to funding to equal access to making sure there is sustained input from the small businesses community.
By both helping small businesses grow and mitigating the potentially negative impact of casino development, these amendments will keep local small businesses in host communities competitive and thriving.
Ensuring that small businesses have a sustained role and voice in casino planning and development is critical.
These amendments will add one small business owner and one local chamber of commerce representative, both from a host community, to the community mitigation subcommittee of the Governor?s Gaming Advisory Committee ? expanding the total from 7 to 9 members.? This will guarantee that the small business community?s concerns are heard throughout this planning and development process.
These amendments will also require the commission to complete internal research on the impact of casinos on small business growth and development in host and nearby communities.? Just as the commission will research the effects of casinos on the public health of Massachusetts residents, which is crucial, the commission should also monitor how casinos will impact the health of local small businesses.
Another important component of this bill is ensuring that when we talk about small business in Massachusetts, we keep in mind that all of our small businesses ? with a wide diversity amongst them ? offer different, positive contributions to our economy.?
To this point I want to thank Chairman Wagner for incorporating amendments from last year that acknowledge the important role that can be played by minority- , veteran- , and women- owned businesses in all phases of expanded gambling.? This starts at the design-phase and includes the construction phase and participating as vendors in the provision of goods and services.
As President Obama stated in his speech before Congress last week, small businesses are integral to our economy.? Small businesses are leaders in job creation.? That is why the President has made them a vital part of his American Jobs Act, and that is why we in Massachusetts have been a leader in positioning small businesses at the forefront of our economic development initiatives.? Even when our efforts seem focused on big business like casinos, we must consider the important role small businesses play in every aspect of our economic planning.
I ask you to adopt these amendments to continue to enable small businesses to perform their important role as employer, taxpayer, and economic driver!?
Source: http://lindadorcenaforry.org/announcements/house-adopts-two-forry-amendments-to-gaming-bill/
byu football byu football byu serena williams the falling man the falling man mermaid
কোন মন্তব্য নেই:
একটি মন্তব্য পোস্ট করুন