Weekly Political Report – Week Ending September 23, 2011

Senate Debate on Gambling Bill to Begin Next Week

The Senate is set to start debate on Monday on an expanded gambling bill that would license three regional, resort-style casinos and one slot parlor. After the amendment deadline passed on Wednesday, a total of 182 proposals had been filed, including amendments to reduce the number of casinos from three to two and to remove the single slot machine venue from the bill.

Senate President Therese Murray (D-Plymouth) indicated this week that the final vote on the gambling bill will not likely occur this week, as the Senate will hold two formal sessions per week and Senate rules permit members to delay bills for up to three consecutive sessions before they are ruled out of order.

Poll Shows Elizabeth Warren with a Lead on Scott Brown

On Tuesday, Public Policy Polling released an opinion survey that showed US Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren with a 46-44 lead over Senator Scott Brown, with other Democrats in the race trailing Brown by 15 percentage points or more. The poll found Warren’s favorable-unfavorable ratings were 40-22, an improvement from 21-17 in a poll taken in June. The survey, which polled 791 Massachusetts voters from Sept. 16 – Sept. 18, has a margin of error is 3.5 percent.  Public Policy Polling released a second set of poll results on Wednesday, which showed President Obama with a 53-40 lead in a hypothetical match against Mitt Romney and a 58-32 lead over Gov. Rick Perry.

Mid-September Tax Collections up 9.7 Percent

According to a report sent to legislative leaders from the state revenue commissioner, tax collections and receipts over the first half of the month were up $88 million, or 9.7 percent. Mid-month income tax collections were up 15.5 percent, income tax withholding receipts were up 8.1 percent, and sales tax collections mid-month were up 5 percent.  Monthly collections through Sept. 15 totaled $994 million and the benchmark for the collections over the full month is $2.052 billion, or 1.8 percent more than September 2010.

John Nunnari, Assoc AIA
Executive Director, AIA MA
jnunnari@architects.org
617-951-1433 x263
617-951-0845 (fax)

MA Chapter of American Institute of Architects
The Architects Building
52 Broad Street, Boston MA 02109-4301
www.architects.org