BRISTOL — Voters will be facing petitioned warrant articles to allow businesses to offer keno gambling and to replace the traditional town meeting with official ballot voting during this year’s Town Meeting on Saturday, March 17.
Selectmen held the required public hearing on keno during their Feb. 15 meeting, but overlooked the requirement for a hearing on the adoption of RSA 40:13, commonly known as SB2, so were planning to hold that hearing at a special meeting on Feb. 22. To hold the hearing required a seven-day notice, and as of Tuesday morning, that hearing still had not been posted on the town website. Town officials, however, confirmed that the hearing will take place Thursday evening.
During the keno hearing, there were few questions from the public, but the selectmen discussed the pros and cons among themselves, with a representative of the New Hampshire Lottery Commission there to explain the intricacies of the game.
The New Hampshire Legislature voted to allow keno as a way to offer a financial incentive to public schools to provide full-day kindergarten. Whether or not a town votes to allow keno within its borders, each school district will be eligible to receive $1,100 per student from the state, beginning in 2019. The Newfound Area School District already offers full-day kindergarten, so the new form of gambling would provide an additional source of revenue.
There are questions whether proceeds of the game will fully cover the cost of the incentive, particularly in its first year when some communities have chosen to take a wait-and-see attitude toward keno. If it does not generate enough income, a portion of the kindergarten funding would come from the state’s general fund.
The Lottery Commission cites the amount of money Massachusetts receives from keno, where the game has been offered for many years, and claims there is no data to support the premise that it is more addictive that other forms of gambling because of the frequency of play.
Similar in appearance to bingo, keno allows people to bet on a series of numbers which are electronically drawn. The price of the ticket depends upon how many numbers one picks, and whether one chooses a “multiplier” to increase the prize.
Selectmen chose not to place the question on the town meeting warrant, but citizens petitioned to have a chance to vote on it. One local restaurant has submitted an application to the state to offer keno, should voters agree to allow it in Bristol.
Edward “Ned” Gordon commented that, although he is not an advocate of gambling, he believes keno is preferable to allowing casinos, considering that the proceeds benefit kindergarten and help local businesses.
Selectmen also held a public hearing on the proposed $2 million bond for the town hall-police station project, although there were no handouts to help the public understand the implications of the choices. Verbally, Town Administrator Nik Coates outlined the range of interest rates offered by the New Hampshire Municipal Bond Bank and Northway Bank, noting that those figures could change by town meeting time. The remainder of the cost of the $2.65 million project would be covered by using $400,000 from the unreserved fund balance and $250,000 in taxation.
Another option, to keep the tax rate stable, would be reduce the budget and/or warrant article spending by $578,000, Coates said. That could be done on the floor of town meeting.
Selectmen noted that, even if there is no tax increase this year, the bond payments will increase the tax rate in future years. However, bonds for the fire department pumper will be paid off in 2021, and the library project will be paid off in 2022.
19 February 2018
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