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"Gov. Maggie Hassan on Tuesday urged lawmakers to act to allow casino gambling in the state, but she's facing serious resistance to her spending plan.Hassan testified that her budget is responsible and balanced while also calling a casino a good bet for New Hampshire. But some Republicans are threatening to derail her plans, saying her revenue projections are unrealistic.\"I support allowing one high-end casino in New Hampshire for a number of reasons,\" Hassan said.Testifying in support of a bill that would legalize expanded gambling in New Hampshire, the governor said a casino would create jobs and bring in revenue.\"Failure to act would allow Massachusetts to capture the revenue from New Hampshire's residents while our communities bear the costs without the benefits,\" Hassan said.The bill would dedicate millions of dollars from the expected revenues to North Country development. It's expected to pass the Senate, but Sen. Martha Fuller Clark, D-Portsmouth, still voiced her opposition to the bill in favor of more traditional revenue generators, such as additional taxes and fees.\"Across the country, promised revenues from gambling have failed time and time again to materialize, and often the legislatures have had to go back and reduce the percentage that goes to the state,\" Clark said.Later in the day, Hassan testified before a joint session of budget writers from the Senate and House while elsewhere in the Statehouse, a group of House Republicans gathered to question the governor's proposal and the revenue numbers she used to create it.\"Nothing would give this state more trouble than unrealistic revenue projections,\" said Rep. Gene Chandler, R-Bartlett. \"It's happened before, and it will happen again, and we can't allow that to happen.\"Some Republicans said they believe the governor's budget proposal overshoots revenue projections by more than $100 million. That's without money from gambling or an increase in the cigarette tax, neither of which has passed the Legislature."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.wmur.com/article/hassan-urges-lawmakers-to-support-expanded-gambling/5179662>