Rep seeks track vote

REVERE – She admits it is a long shot, but state Rep. Kathi-Anne Reinstein is exploring the possibility of asking fellow legislators to overturn last week’s referendum vote closing dog tracks in 2010.”I will file a petition if I can. We are looking into how to go about reversing it,” Reinstein said.Ban proponents labeled their victory “a clear message that we will not tolerate an industry that causes thousands of dogs to endure lives of terrible confinement.”Reinstein sides with workers and kennel owners who called proponents’ mistreatment claims exaggerated. She contrasted the dog ban to a marijuana decriminalization referendum voters also approved.”It’s tragic that it is OK to smoke pot but not OK to make an honest day’s living.”Proponents and high-ranking legislators like Revere Rep. Robert DeLeo proposed in the wake of the referendum’s passage providing workers with retraining and other assistance.Reinstein said she has yet to speak with Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi about a legislative debate over reversing the ban. She acknowledged support for the ban and the reluctance on the part of legislators to act against the voters’ will.”The odds are stacked against us,” she said.Wonderland’s closing is one of several financial calculations Revere officials must make as they look beyond this year’s worrisome financial forecast.The track is the city’s eighth biggest property taxpayer generating about $200,000 a year. Loss of that revenue in Fiscal 2011 – the spending year that starts July 1, 2010 – could come on the heels of state aid cuts in 2009.Mayor Thomas Ambrosino Wednesday said, “We know there will be local aid cuts” in 2009. He is hoping a “modest” increase in property taxes this year will generate about $500,000 the city can set aside to offset a state aid reduction.Like all Massachusetts communities, Revere relies on property tax revenue and state money called local aid to cover municipal expenses.Ambrosino hopes the state has enough money to avoid reducing local aid in December or January, but city Chief Financial Officer George Anzuoni said even a decision to not increase local aid as health costs and other expenses rise will hit Revere hard.”I agree with the mayor that if we stay leveled funded it will amount to a cut with the increases we face,” he said.Anzuoni also must factor in the possible loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in rental car surcharge revenue the city uses to help pay its borrowing costs.The state is reviewing a centralized rental plan that would relocate car lots from Lee Burbank Highway within city limits to inside Logan International Airport by 2012.