Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | July 22, 2024 | Worcester Business Journal 21 iLottery offers a solution for the budget challenges facing Mass. cities BY TIMOTHY MURRAY Special to WBJ M assachusetts communities need help. With federal COVID relief funds now dried up and the cost of doing business increasing, cities and towns are scrambling to adequately fund schools, public safety, roads, and transportation. It's why more and more municipalities are considering Proposition 2 1/2 overrides to meet growing budget challenges. But there is a way for the state to grow its revenues and provide more money to cities and towns without raising anyone's taxes or fees. Beacon Hill leaders could approve iLottery. iLottery would allow the Massachusetts Lottery to offer products online and through mobile devices, complementing its portfolio of traditional lottery games sold at retail, which generate more than $1 billion in local aid distributed each year to all 351 cities and towns. e Lottery needs to remain competitive in order to grow that revenue which directly supports municipalities. iLottery would provide an annual source of revenue that would grow year over year with a projected $230 million for the state by the end of its fih year. Over 10 years, that number is projected to jump to $2.35 billion returned to the state. In addition to helping cities and towns, iLottery could fund the worthy but costly priorities of state leaders, including free community college, universal pre-K, and free regional public transit. With casinos and sports betting already up and running in Massachusetts, multiple avenues for gaming are already available to state residents. If Massachusetts does not approve iLottery, the revenue may well end up going to private entities who are finding loopholes to sell Massachusetts Lottery games online or to other neighboring states, including Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, which all already allow for iLottery. With the budget deadline in just a few weeks, the legislature's budget conference committee will be making some critical decisions. Approving iLottery, a new, reliable annual funding stream, could assist policymakers in achieving their legislative goals while providing relief to the significant budget challenges facing cities and towns throughout Massachusetts. Timothy Murray, the former lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, is the president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce. Nurture our Central Mass. superpower Timothy Murray I n the British elections this July, the conservative party was swept out of power aer more than a decade of rule. While the reasons were many, the New York Times in its post-mortem analy- sis said the party failed to live up to its promises following the Brexit split with the European Union, which party leaders claimed would help stem the flow of immigrants into the country. Turns out, most British voters are largely fine with individual immigrants they know, especially the doc- tors and nurses who have joined their understaffed National Health Service. However, the bulk of voters still oppose the overall concept of immigration, and numbers showing still-rising levels of immigration into their country were too much for the conservative party to overcome. To no one's surprise, immigration is shaping up to be one of the top issues in this year's U.S. elections, with both presidential candidates talking up their toughness on the southern border. While politically immigration is fraught with emotion, the economic benefit is straightforward. Economically powerful countries like China, Japan, and most of Europe will suffer a decline in population in the coming decades, threatening their economic vi- tality. With the allure of the American dream, the U.S. has always been an attractive country for people from all over the world. e most important resource in the growth of an economy is its working-age population, so the steady flow of immigrants into this country is truly America's superpower, especially as low birth rates signal a population drop. In Worcester, a city defined by the flow of immigrants over the centuries, and throughout Central Mass., immigrants start busi- nesses at a higher rate than natural-born residents, according to a 2018 joint report by the Worcester Regional Research Bureau and Worcester Business Journal. is is a significant factor in why voters tend to be fine with the individual immigrants they know and see contributing to their community, even as they may oppose the overall concept. Mass. is about to take a step toward helping many of those immigrant-owned businesses succeed. As Staff Writer Mica Kanner-Mascolo writes in her cover story "Breaking down barriers" on page 10, the state's Supplier Diversity Office (SDO) is set to loosen the citizenship requirement for companies to achieve certification as a minority-owned, woman-owned, or veteran-owned business, which qualifies them for more projects backed by public money. Appli- cants still have to be in the country legally, and the businesses have to be in good standing; but business owners will no longer have to wait for the lengthy citizenship process, which can take 10 years or longer, to remove a barrier to growing their companies. Of course, immigration remains a polarizing issue, which can create shorter-term headaches, such as competition for housing and educational resources. is makes the overall concept of immigration more vexing. When WBJ conducted an online poll over whether Mass. should ease the citizenship require- ments for SDO certifications, nearly 90% of readers said no. Despite this result, we think the change should be welcomed. We need to grow, not shrink, our workforce and help businesses thrive. Immigrants are our country's superpower and can help us remain the #1 economy in the world. W The above Editorial is the opinion of the WBJ Editorial Board. The Viewpoint column, the A Thousand Words cartoon, and the Word from the Web commentary represent the opinions of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of WBJ or its staff. WBJ welcomes letters to the editor and commentary submissions. Send them to bkane@wbjournal.com. W

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