operations she remembered. Gambling was now a legitimate industry of strictly regulated corporations that had brought prosperity to our struggling state. In making this argument, the numbers were all on my side.
Legalized casino gambling lifted Mississippis Tunica Countyonce the poorest in the United Statesfrom wretched poverty to wealth in fifteen years. A rural county serviced by open sewer ditches in 1991, Tunica has doubled its per capita income while going from two thousand total jobs to over seventeen thousand. Theyve invested $40 million in school improvements, poured millions into police and fire protection, built a sports arena, doubled the size of their library, and invested over $100 million in their road system. Statewide, the verdict on gambling is beyond question. Since 1992, the casino industry has come to provide nearly 5 percent of the states total tax revenue.
Despite Mrs. Pierces suspicion that vice is vice, whatever cloak it wears, I knew I was making headway when she told me that shed always chastised her friends who had blindly resisted change and felt they had hobbled the citys efforts to keep pace with the rest of the country. I knew I was almost home when she said softly that shed never imagined she would gaze down the hill that led to herhome place and see a neon casino sign. I promised her that if that was her final objection, she never would. The city would submit all of Golden Parachutes signage plans to her for approval. My mouth fell open when the old belle said she wouldnt carp about the sign if the company would devote one-half of 1 percent of its revenues from the Magnolia Queen to helping the citys underprivileged children. (Mrs. Pierce actually said colored, but her heart was in the right place.) In the end the company agreed to one-quarter of 1 percent, but that has amounted to $162,000 this year.
Two days after our meeting, Mrs. Pierce revoked the restrictive clause, and the Golden Parachute casino deal went forward. This made me a hero to the board of selectmen, but I felt like a heel. What I feel tonight is immeasurably worse. Mrs. Pierce died one month after revoking that clause, and if even half of Tims allegations are true, its a mercy that she did. The town at large never learned that it was I who opened the final gate to Golden Parachute, but that does not lessen my guilt. Tonight I feel more like I lifted our hoopskirt and pulled down our petticoats.
Nevertheless, dogfighting, drug use, and prostitution went on here before the Magnolia Queen arrived, just as they do in every city in America. The thesis that Golden Parachute is defrauding the city of millions of dollars in taxes is an accusation of a different order. This kind of crime, while not as disturbing on the surface as the others, is more harmful in the end, because it impacts every man, woman, and child in the city. If this allegation is true, then food is being stolen from the mouths of the children Mrs. Pierce wanted to help.
Yet this is the part of Tims tale that I find impossible to believe. I dont know enough about computers to judge the feasibility of distorting the casinos gross receipts, but even if such fraud were possible, the central question remains: Why would Golden Parachute risk it? Especially now.
Forty-six days ago, Hurricane Katrina roared over the floating gold mines that were the casinos at Biloxi and Gulfport and left behind something resembling Omaha Beach on D-day. A single storm wiped out a $100-million-a-month industry. But 150 miles to the northwest, in Natchez, the Magnolia Queen and her sister casinos simply battened down their hatches and rode out the winds and rain. The city sustained severe damage, and some areas were withoutpower for more than a week, but the Magnolia Queen was running on her generators the day after the hurricane. And no sooner had some refugees gotten settled into the shelters at the local churches and
Legalized casino gambling lifted Mississippis Tunica Countyonce the poorest in the United Statesfrom wretched poverty to wealth in fifteen years. A rural county serviced by open sewer ditches in 1991, Tunica has doubled its per capita income while going from two thousand total jobs to over seventeen thousand. Theyve invested $40 million in school improvements, poured millions into police and fire protection, built a sports arena, doubled the size of their library, and invested over $100 million in their road system. Statewide, the verdict on gambling is beyond question. Since 1992, the casino industry has come to provide nearly 5 percent of the states total tax revenue.
Despite Mrs. Pierces suspicion that vice is vice, whatever cloak it wears, I knew I was making headway when she told me that shed always chastised her friends who had blindly resisted change and felt they had hobbled the citys efforts to keep pace with the rest of the country. I knew I was almost home when she said softly that shed never imagined she would gaze down the hill that led to herhome place and see a neon casino sign. I promised her that if that was her final objection, she never would. The city would submit all of Golden Parachutes signage plans to her for approval. My mouth fell open when the old belle said she wouldnt carp about the sign if the company would devote one-half of 1 percent of its revenues from the Magnolia Queen to helping the citys underprivileged children. (Mrs. Pierce actually said colored, but her heart was in the right place.) In the end the company agreed to one-quarter of 1 percent, but that has amounted to $162,000 this year.
Two days after our meeting, Mrs. Pierce revoked the restrictive clause, and the Golden Parachute casino deal went forward. This made me a hero to the board of selectmen, but I felt like a heel. What I feel tonight is immeasurably worse. Mrs. Pierce died one month after revoking that clause, and if even half of Tims allegations are true, its a mercy that she did. The town at large never learned that it was I who opened the final gate to Golden Parachute, but that does not lessen my guilt. Tonight I feel more like I lifted our hoopskirt and pulled down our petticoats.
Nevertheless, dogfighting, drug use, and prostitution went on here before the Magnolia Queen arrived, just as they do in every city in America. The thesis that Golden Parachute is defrauding the city of millions of dollars in taxes is an accusation of a different order. This kind of crime, while not as disturbing on the surface as the others, is more harmful in the end, because it impacts every man, woman, and child in the city. If this allegation is true, then food is being stolen from the mouths of the children Mrs. Pierce wanted to help.
Yet this is the part of Tims tale that I find impossible to believe. I dont know enough about computers to judge the feasibility of distorting the casinos gross receipts, but even if such fraud were possible, the central question remains: Why would Golden Parachute risk it? Especially now.
Forty-six days ago, Hurricane Katrina roared over the floating gold mines that were the casinos at Biloxi and Gulfport and left behind something resembling Omaha Beach on D-day. A single storm wiped out a $100-million-a-month industry. But 150 miles to the northwest, in Natchez, the Magnolia Queen and her sister casinos simply battened down their hatches and rode out the winds and rain. The city sustained severe damage, and some areas were withoutpower for more than a week, but the Magnolia Queen was running on her generators the day after the hurricane. And no sooner had some refugees gotten settled into the shelters at the local churches and
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