A Nevada judge will hear arguments Monday in a case that could have a big impact in Massachusetts.
Embattled former casino magnate Steve Wynn wants to stop the Massachusetts Gaming Commission from making public the findings of its investigation into him and the company he founded. Matt Murphy of the State House News Service joins us to talk about what's at stake.
Matt Murphy, State House News Service: This is all about a lawsuit that Steve Wynn, no longer of Wynn Resorts — he has stepped aside, following those allegations of misconduct while he was at the company.
But he has sued, trying to block the Massachusetts Gaming Commission from using documents that he said were obtained improperly from attorneys, that should have been protected by attorney-client privilege.
Wynn is suggesting that these documents are part of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission's review into whether or not Wynn Resorts withheld information from Massachusetts when they were applying for their license to build a casino in Massachusetts, in Everett, where they are currently getting close to wrapping up construction.
This lawsuit is holding up potentially the conclusion of this investigation, which is going to be a decision on whether or not Wynn should continue to hold this license.
This is a huge decision, obviously, for the future of gaming in Massachusetts, but also economic development in that area. They were to strip that license from Wynn Resorts. The question becomes: what do you do with a resort that's basically built right now? The hotel is up. The gaming buildings are up. I mean, it's really getting close.
They say that they're on track to open this casino late spring or early summer. So the results of this hearing in Nevada in the courts — what happens to the investigation in Massachusetts and moving forward has a big economic impact on the greater Boston area.
Carrie Healy, NEPR: It's sounding like health care is going to be among the top priorities for the legislature when the session begins in January. Massachusetts has a strong economy now, an unemployment rate in October that just dropped to 3.5 percent. Could a pretty rosy state economy impact what legislators come up with for tweaks to MassHealth and to health care?
The health care sector is a major employment sector in Massachusetts, and there's a slight tick down in October in the unemployment rate. They're not going to want to disrupt this market if it's going well.
But the question is where do they go on health care? Talks broke down earlier this summer as they tried to do something to help community hospitals, which are actually struggling. Do they pick up the ball there, and try to reach a compromise?
We know that the governor is also looking at something. But when he talks about health care reform, his eyes have often been set on trying to squeeze savings out of the MassHealth program. He could also potentially be looking at doing something around pharmaceutical drug prices. We do have a number of pharma companies in Boston, and the eastern part of Massachusetts, a lot of headquarters of these big pharma companies, research companies.
So anything that is done here on Beacon Hill could impact that. I'm sure they will want to be sensitive to the job market, and not wanting to disrupt growth in these industries, while also trying to help consumers.
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker talked about wanting to get a "sense of the rhythm" of the legislative session before introducing health care changes. Is there really a rhythm to a session?
Yeah, there definitely is. It probably frustrates a lot of people. It even frustrates us from time to time, but it can be a slow process. I mean, when the new session starts in January, you're going to see some time lag between that first session and that first week of January. Then leadership is going to get elected.
It's going to take some time to appoint chairmen to committees. Those committees will have to get set up before they start hearing bills.
The governor is certainly going to be having conversations with the leadership. We think that will be the return of House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Karen Spilka. And they're going to have their ideas of what they want to tackle first.
The budget in the first year of the session often comes up very quickly, because the governor has to file that by the end of January, and then the House takes that up in March. So by the time the committees are up and running, the budget often becomes the big first piece of legislation that they have to deal with.
But these things can kind of have a long runway to get up and running, and so the governor is probably going to try and feel out what he can get passed quickly, and what might take more time.
