Once Again: Hold Up On That Convention Hotel

Sen. John Carona (R., Dallas) drives by those same freeway billboards you and I do every day enticing Dallas money to Louisiana and Oklahoma casinos. If his bill to allow casinos at 12 sites in Texas (two in Dallas County) can muster a two-thirds majority, it goes on the ballot in November as a constitutional amendment. My money says it will pass. Suddenly that hotel starts looking like a better bet. I argued against it last November because the city’s rosy financial forecast didn’t make sense. But a casino down the street makes all the difference — not only to the city, but to private investors. And that makes me wonder if the city would need to invest a single dime.