The town of Middleborough (which, in case you were wondering, is near Taunton on Rt. 495 on the way to Cape Cod) and the Mashpee Wampanoags have reached a deal on the tribe’s proposal to build a casino. Thus saith the Globe:
The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe sweetened its deal yesterday with the town of Middleborough to host the state’s first casino by agreeing to pay the financially-strapped town at least $11 million a year, $4 million more than the tribe had previously agreed to pay.
The new agreement will go before a Town Meeting next Saturday that is expected to draw as many as 10,000 voters in the town of 22,000 residents. Because of the anticipated turnout, the meeting is to be held outside, on an athletic field at Middleborough High School.
If approved by a majority of voters at the meeting, the casino would then need approval from the state and federal governments. Governor Deval Patrick has said he expects to decide next month whether to support it….
The agreement, reached after all-day negotiating sessions over the last five days, adds two new provisions to the original tentative agreement, which called for the tribe to give the town $7 million a year instead of paying property taxes, plus about $250 million for roads, bridges, and other one-time town infrastructure improvements.
One addition to the new agreement is an escalator clause giving the town a 3.1 percent annual increase to the payment, or about $217,000 in the second year. The second is a 4 percent lodging tax on the development’s planned 1,500-room hotel, which the tribal and town negotiators project to bring in about $4 million a year…. Middleborough is in Southeastern Massachusetts, about 40 miles from Boston and 30 miles from Providence. The tribe has purchased about 200 acres of woodlands and has options on another 125 acres.
And here’s an important fact:
The $11 million total would represent more than 15 percent of the town’s annual budget.
That’s big money for a small town. And the state stands to rake in some bucks as well — if it allows the casino to feature slot machines.
In a separate agreement with the state, the tribe is proposing to share up to 25 percent of its slot machine revenues in exchange for the exclusive rights to operate a casino in Massachusetts. Tribes in Connecticut have made such a deal there, contributing $433 million annually to the state.
If the state doesn’t allow slots, the tribe can still build a “class II” casino (slots, blackjack, etc. are “class III”), though its revenues will be substantially less. In that case, presumably, the state gets nothing.
Personally, I remain undecided on the wisdom of bringing “class III” gaming to Massachusetts. But it cannot be denied that the dollar numbers here are large, and those who argue against allowing class III gaming will have to answer the arguments of those who say that the towns and the state need the money. After all, civilization appears not to have collapsed in Connecticut.
Next weekend’s town meeting in Middleborough, which could draw up to 10,000 of the town’s 12,000 registered voters if the predictions hold, should be quite a spectacle. We encourage all members of BMG’s southeastern MA bureau to attend and report what you see!
I wish someone would show some numbers in the form of a cost/benefit analysis. Many people fail to understand that even the smallest towns are multi-million dollar enterprises. I wonder what a Middleboro town report would show for income vs expenses now? How much more is going to have to be paid for police/fire/rescue services? Highway improvements and maintenance? The vast majority of jobs will be part-time, minimum wage jobs for the local citizenry parking cars and taking bets. I’ll bet even money that the town will be raising taxes tow years after the casino opens. No wonder the casino want exemption from property tax.
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Has anyone any idea of where the startup money is coming from? I’m curious. I doubt Wompanoags are more than just the front for the money people. Well, we won’t see the real story in the newspapers, will we?
a fair amount of what you ask is in the newspaper.
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So that’s where the money is coming from. As for highway improvements etc., I already quoted this:
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As for property taxes, it’s not exactly that the tribe wants an exemption from them, it’s that they automatically get one because of their status as a sovereign entity. And as for the town having to raise taxes, again, I already quoted this:
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Finally, the article notes that the $11 million annual payment is about 15% of the town’s annual budget, which obviously says that the town is indeed a multi-million dollar operation.
The folks in Middleborough will rue the day if they allow this contrivance to be built. The town as it exists will cease to be. I fully realize that things change, but a gambling casino. I’m sorry, but casino’s don’t attract anything but problems.
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I don’t know how Connecticut is now dealing with the problems, but I had a lengthy conversation years ago with a Connecticut State Police officer assigned to the gaming division. Not good. Oddly enough they had to employ a full time crime scene unit to the casino’s because of the amount of people who go there simply to blow what money they have remaining, get drunk, then commit suicide. My, isn’t that a pleasant thought.Then you have the usual assortment of thieves, and con artists, and armed robbery. Traffic issues and drunks. I wonder how many folks like nurses in the area who work 3-11 will be killed by drunks when they attempt to drive home after their shift.
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Their are many communities surrounding Middleborough who have already had a collective meeting seeking mitigation re cops and fire if they build this eyesore.
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We’ll see. The avarice and greed of the quick buck knows no boundaries.
I call him ‘Gamblor!’
Isn’t there pre-existing laws out there of when to serve alcohol? What are you talking about?
In just one post, you managed to get in the following:
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(1) Hyperbole — “I’m sorry, but casino’s don’t attract anything but problems”;
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(2) Generalization — “lengthy conversation years ago with a Connecticut State Police officer assigned to the gaming division”;
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(3) Emotional appeal (and more hyperbole) — “I wonder how many folks like nurses in the area who work 3-11 will be killed by drunks when they attempt to drive home after their shift”; and
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(4) Misplaced populism — “The avarice and greed of the quick buck knows no boundaries.”
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Not bad for one post. I’m much more interested in the potential economic benefit for the state (and Middleborough) then all of this moralistic cover, however. I know both proponents and opponents of gaming in MA have something to say on the economics of this, so I’d be interested to hear more on that aspect of it.
Along with the tax revenue/pilot payments is the ecomomic plus of jobs. First the construction jobs that come with building a multiplex facility. Most likley in the range of 7 – 8,000 building trades jobs to actually build the casino. These are far from minimum wage jobs and if responsible contractors are hired these jobs will include health insurance and pension funds for the construction workers.
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In addition, there is a large maintemamce workforce necessary to keep a facility like a casino/hotel complex operating. That means additional long term building trades/maintenece workers jobs.
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Finally in Las Vegas, with strong union contracts, dealers, bartenders, waiters/waitresses and service staff make decent livings with benefits. These include full and part-time jobs. Casino workers in Atlantic City have been voting in union representation just recently. I would suspect that with Massachusetts being one of the states with higher union membership numbers, these casino workers will strongly consider unionization.
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Personally I enjoy gambling – horse racing more so than casinos (Please note – and we need slots at Suffolk Downs to maintain the several thousands jobs there)and I dislike the concept that the state should legislate morality by refusing to allow gambling. The state is already in the gambling business with the state lottery. The state allows the sale of tobacco and liquior – which people may or may not abuse. To “protect” people from gambling means we must have a low opinion of our citizens.
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Is a casino or series of casinos an end all to revenue problems? No. Will a casino(s) mean additional social and economic stress? Yes – for some. Are opponents offering any other viable options for mass job creation and new tax revenue on a similar scale? Not that I have seen.
Why————-yes.
At least, if it plays out like the CT casinos. I had lunch with a friend of mine from Groton, and asked her about the CT casinos. She pointed out that it’s killed the local restaurants [they can’t compete with loss-leading cheap steaks in the casino, so locals go to the casino to eat too], and the promise of jobs never happened — the casinos effectively imported the people to do the jobs. The construction jobs went to non-union southerners, the hotel jobs went to newly arrived Latin immigrants, the operations jobs [dealers, etc] went to newly arrived mid-westerners, etc. Sure, the town gets money out of the deal, but it’s not provided jobs in any large stretch except to newcomers who aren’t making much money and therefore sucking up city services without providing much tax base themselves. The highway dept, police dept, schools, and other services are stretched just like before — only now the town has far less local flavor and far more crime.
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Why is this a good idea again?
I wish I saved the newspaper article that I read at the Convenience Store on the real cost of gambling to the community of Ledyard, CT and the surrounding areas last summer while enroute to the beach. I keyed in on the impact to the quality of life in the local municipalities. All bad news. Good luck Middleborough, hope you think it through. A few will get rich, more will face ruin and the majority will still be stuck with bills.
When the Middleboro School Committee voted to endorse the proposal, they stated that the major difference seen by schools in casino towns was a large uptick in the number of students whose first language was Chinese. Officials in these towns stated that these were the children of people who had moved in to work in the casino.
With data pointing to the correlations between special education and low income the schools will likely be hit with a huge fiscal problem.
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Our state and federal governments continue to fail to fully address special education funding with the local school district left dealing with the unmanageable budgetary needs. Net result, funding is shifted from “regular” ed to fund special ed and STUDENTS lose.
Middleboro is on a rail line to Boston. This should increase ridership on otherwise dead weekends. The hotels and restaurants in the area could use the business so the number of maids and waitstaff should increase. There will be need for pawn shops, day care centers, massage parlors, and other service industries. The opportunities are unlimited for the go-getter.
Loan sharks, pawn shops, narcotics, prostitutes. The attendant armies of cops required to keep the lid on. A fantastic idea, brought to us by our local native American tribe. What do you call it? Payback?
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The posibilities are endless.
a luscious cherry on top of a rancid chocolate sundae.
vote for the casino and put another chink in the puritanical blue laws of Massachusetts. Gambling should be legal throughout the state anywhere anybody wants to provide the service. This is the first step in making that happen. There is no reason that the government should make it illegal for me to do anything I want with my own money. The role of Government is not to protect me from myself.
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Viva Wampanoags!
from a MassINC article here.
Exactly the sort of article I was looking for. MassINC just about always comes through.
I have lived in Middleboro over the last year or so, and will be present and voting at the spectacle next week. I’ll also by taking photos and reporting back. Some points that may come up later:
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Last year West Warwick, Rhode Island went through this same exercise. The state would have had to change their Constitution and the voters nixed the idea. So this year Middleborough gets the nod. If it doesn’t go through, another community will be targeted. The South Africans that are in charge of this deal have very deep pockets and lots of cheap US Dollars. They are not going to give up. I’d rather see Middleborough get the casino than my town.
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Interestingly, the minnows seem to be in a feeding frenzy. Tiny Town of Berkley is already zoning for adult stores in their area closest to Middleborough. This town, that publishes no town reports, is also installing cameras to photo registration tags of speeders. Wonder where that money will go?