Mass. Cultural Council secures gambling funds

The long-delayed closeout spending bill that finally passed on December 15 contained a provision funneling 2 percent of the tax revenue from the state’s two resort casinos into a fund that the Massachusetts Cultural Council hopes will support arts institutions as well as low-income people who can’t afford to patronize them.

The measure is another Beacon Hill victory for the Cultural Council, which has taken a pounding from the Boston Herald for spending its resources on fine dining, travel, and accommodations, but nevertheless saw its annual appropriation go up this year and now has authority to spend the casino revenues the way it wants. The fund currently has more than $3 million, and the Cultural Council wants to use at least a portion of the money to pilot a prescription arts program.

Anita Walker, the executive director of the Cultural Council, told the Berkshire Eagle that the holdup on the casino money was due to language issues in the legislation. But the Boston Herald also pushed for more accountability, demanding in an editorial that the Cultural Council’s expenditures from the fund be subject to legislative appropriation. 

“If the Massachusetts Cultural Council, with all its transparency troubles, is allowed to receive an infusion of casino cash, virtually unchecked, it would only encourage irresponsible spending and embolden leadership to operate away from the light of day,” the Herald opined.

The 2011 gaming law directed that the casino money be used to level the playing field between nonprofit and municipally owned performing arts centers and casinos, both of which compete for touring shows and artists. The new language drops that requirement and other specific spending measures and merely creates a Cultural and Performing Arts Mitigation Trust Fund.

Staring in January, Walker says she wants to use at least a portion of the money to create two health-related arts pilot programs. One would allow participants in the Massachusetts Health Connector with incomes less than 300 percent of the federal poverty level to receive free or reduced-admission to cultural institutions. The program is patterned after a similar initiative the Cultural Council runs with the Department of Transitional Assistance for EBT cardholders.

The other initiative would allow medical professionals to write prescriptions for cultural experiences at participating arts organizations. “Any time a social prescription is written for a program at one of our cultural organizations, that prescription will be sent to us at the Massachusetts Cultural Council and we will reimburse the organization for the full cost of the work,” Walker told the Berkshire Eagle.

Walker thinks insurance companies will eventually pick up the cost of these art and cultural prescriptions, just as they cover the cost of gym memberships. “Research has already shown that arts and culture participation lowers their cost because it is what public health officials call a protective factor,” Walker said. “It is a protective factor against the issues that lead to depression and anxiety.”

The prescription program will be tested initially in the Berkshires and in Springfield. In the Berkshires, the Macony Pediatric Group of Great Barrington, the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, and a group of local schools and cultural organizations will be working together. The key player in Springfield is the Caring Health Center.

A Berkshire Eagle editorial hailed the effort. “Gambling is accompanied by social ills, but those ills will be tempered if gambling revenue can be used for social benefits,” the paper said.

BRUCE MOHL

BEACON HILL

Liberty Mutual and Verizon pushed for the tax change that nearly stalemated the House and Senate this month. (CommonWealth)

Attorney General Maura Healey sues eight e-cigarette firms for violating a month-old Massachusetts law banning the sale of flavored tobacco products. (CommonWealth)

Disability activists get a meeting with Gov. Charlie Baker, but he doesn’t commit to their call for increasing access at work sites. (Boston Globe)  

Watch politicians, including Baker, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, sing carols with reporter Alison King. (NBC10)

Massachusetts vows to keep accepting refugees, but not every city is on board. (MassLive)

 MUNICIPAL MATTERS

By a 5-3 vote, the Lowell city council granted City Manager Eileen Donoghue a $24,000 raise. (Lowell Sun) 

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

In an interview with New York’s Olivia Nuzzi, Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer, unspooled an icky theory about George Soros’s level of Jewishness, described himself as a “partier” before knocking back two Bloody Marys, and mused about whether he will be tasked with defending the president in a Senate trial. 

Retreating from his earlier opposition to calling witnesses in an impeachment trial of President Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday said he hasn’t “ruled out” calling witnesses. (Associated Press) 

ELECTIONS

Four ballot questions, dealing with ranked choice voting, beer and wine sales, nursing home rates, and updating the right to repair law, gather the necessary signatures to move forward to the ballot. (MassLive)

On February 18, Boston Public Radio hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan will host the first debate of the three Democrats vying for US Senate: Shannon Liss-Riordan, Congressman Joe Kennedy and Sen. Ed Markey. (WGBH) The impeachment process has largely overshadowed attention to the race until now. (Boston Globe) 

President Trump has railed recently against energy-efficient light bulbs, low-flow toilets, and wind turbines, setting up a sharp contrast over environmental issues for the 2020 election. (Washington Post)

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council is pushing back against new state rules aimed at reining in drug prices. (Boston Globe) 

TRANSPORTATION 

The first of the MBTA’s new Orange Line cars should be back in service by January 1 as new “wear pads” are ordered. (MassLive)

The new centralized ride-hailing dropoff and pickup garage at Logan Airport is being met with some grumbling from riders and drivers, but is generally operating smoothly. (Boston Globe) 

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

Activists hoping to completely extinguish coal as an energy source in New England have trained their sights on Merrimack Generation Station in Bow, New Hampshire – one of three coal plants remaining in the region. (WBUR)

The Conservation Law Foundation has appealed a federal judge’s decision that the Wychmere Beach Club in Harwich is not liable for the discharge of contaminants from its wastewater treatment plant into the adjacent Wychmere Harbor.  (Cape Cod Times) 

A dog died in Danvers after eating some meat in the woods that police assume was a bait pile for hunting coyotes that was laced with anti-freeze. (Salem News) 

CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS

Lawrence Friedman and David Siegel of New England Law/Boston say there is a precedent for strong action in the indigent defense case before the Supreme Judicial Court. (CommonWealth)

A former Plymouth man accused of shooting a police officer in Maine over the weekend was previously charged with shooting his mother’s boyfriend and assaulting a police officer in Plymouth, though both charges were later dropped. (Patriot Ledger) 

Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn announced the end of a recent investigation into a local drug trafficking organization that resulted in 15 arrests, as well as the seizure of large amounts of fentanyl and cocaine. (Herald News)

Scott Deharo, a middle-aged man who may have been off his meds, went on a racist tirade last June and attacked children, telling them to “get out of Salem.” He was sentenced to 2.5 years in jail on Monday. (Salem News)