Town raises demands on casino
Middleborough wants hundreds of millions
MIDDLEBOROUGH -- Local officials, facing criticism from residents that their tentative deal with the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian tribe was vague and failed to bring enough money to town coffers, are now demanding that the tribe pay hundreds of millions of dollars to locate a casino in this sprawling municipality.
Under a revised agreement circulated among local leaders, the town would seek upfront payments of at least $250 million for new roads and utilities, in addition to a percentage of the casino's annual slot machine revenues.
The town's new demands stand in sharp contrast to the proposal that local officials first floated last month, which called for a flat $7-million-a-year payment by the tribe, plus up to $150 million for improvements in the town's water, sewer, and roadway infrastructure.
The 36-page revised agreement, reviewed by the Globe yesterday, does not specify the town's share of slot revenues, but one person familiar with the negotiations said the figure is expected to be between 1 and 2 percent.
The Mashpee Wampanoags and their business partners anticipate $430 million in slot revenue when their planned casino opens, meaning that the town could receive between $4.3 and $8.6 million in the first year.
Tribal officials, however, have expressed a determination to add thousands of slot machines in the first years of operation, to rival Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, which now average $850 million annually apiece in slot revenue and are projected to take in $1 billion each by 2010. If a casino in Middleborough hit $1 billion in annual revenue , the town's share could be between $10 million and $20 million a year.
The revised agreement was drafted by the town's two outside lawyers, Jonathan Witten of Duxbury, who specializes in land use, and Dennis Whittlesey of Washington D.C., who specializes in Indian casinos. By yesterday, the proposal had neither been made public nor shared with tribal officials.
In addition, the state is likely to demand up to 25 percent of slot revenues in exchange for its consent for a tribal-owned casino.
Middleborough, which bills itself as "the cranberry capital of the world," is a mostly rural town of about 20,000 people, located about 40 miles from Boston and 30 miles from Providence, with only about $3.5 million in commercial and industrial tax revenue. Its selectmen and town manager began courting the tribe in March, seeing the casino as a possible way out of fiscal woes.
The revised agreement has a preface that emphasizes the town's dire fiscal straits, including a $4 million deficit in the town's $64 million budget. Last month, town voters rejected a Proposition 2 1/2 override, much of it for schools. A $7 million to $20 million contribution from the tribe would represent between 11 percent and 31 percent of current spending.
In whirlwind courtship of the Wampanoags and their financial backers, Middleborough officials have emphasized two key ingredients in a formula intended to replicate the Mohegan Sun: vast tracks of developable land for a sprawling casino and resort, which could include a golf course, and easy access from an interstate highway, Interstate 495. The Mohegan Sun developers are now teamed with the Mashpee Wampanoags.
When the Globe first reported the tentative deal between the town and the tribe on June 11, few casino opponents were in evidence. Since then, however, the town has split into pro- and anticasino camps, with as many as 700 residents turning out for public forums on the casino proposal.
Clyde Barrow, a casino researcher at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, called the original agreement "a bad deal for Middleborough, its residents, and the town's future tax base."
Barrow pointed out that the Narragansett Indian tribe of Rhode Island had agreed to pay the town of West Warwick 2 percent of gross gambling revenue and to pay commercial property taxes on the casino. That proposal, backed by
In contrast, the host towns to the two Connecticut casinos receive, in one case, $500,000 a year and, in the other, no contribution.
The revised proposal in Middleborough would require the tribe, which is exempt from local taxes due to its sovereign status, to pay the equivalent of property, hotel and meal, and motor vehicle excise taxes, all in exchange for the town's support in seeking state and federal approval for the casino.
The revised proposal lists the following costs to be paid by the tribe: $172 million for road improvements, $26 million for electrical upgrades, $10 million in gas system expansion, $22.5 million for water service and satellite wells, $26.3 million for waste- water system improvements, and $8 million to $10 million for a new police station.
The town is also demanding that the tribe underwrite the cost of a new police cruiser, two new ambulances, four additional police officers, plus additional staffing in various town departments. Officials would also require the tribe to compensate any abutters who can prove the casino has hurt their property values. And they want a $40,000 contribution to a gambling addiction treatment facility, along with yearly payments of $20,000.
The tribe purchased 125 acres of town land at a public auction on April 27. The Wampanoags have options to purchase another 200 contiguous acres and have approached another abutting land owner about a 200-acre tract.
Even if the Wampanoags and the selectmen have reached an agreement satisfactory to both sides, Town Meeting voters must approve its terms and conditions, now set for July 28.
While the negotiations continue in Middleborough, the city of New Bedford continues to pursue the casino for its community, and the Mashpee Wampanoags have not ruled out that city.
Christine Wallgren can be reached at CLWallgren@aol.com; Sean P. Murphy at smurphy@globe.com. 