Sweetened casino deal gains ground
Middleborough Town Meeting to vote on pact
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. If the $1 billion resort goes forward, tribal leaders said yesterday, it would not open for at least four years.
Glenn Marshall -- chairman of the Wampanoag tribe, which has historical roots in what is now Middleborough -- expressed confidence that voters will approve the 43-page agreement, which was negotiated on behalf of the town by Selectman Adam Bond, land-use lawyer Jonathan D. Witten, and Dennis Whittlesey, a lawyer specializing in Indian casinos.
Bond also said yesterday that he believed the Town Meeting would endorse the agreement.
"I certainly think this is a good deal for the town, and I think the peripheral effects, like the coming of more commercial business, will be a good deal for the town," he said. "I think there are a number of those things right now waiting in the wings to see what happens. . . . My prediction is that Town Meeting accepts this."
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.
The $11 million total would represent more than 15 percent of the town's annual budget.
But the new deal is much less generous than a draft produced by the town earlier this month after many town residents criticized the original tentative agreement as inadequate to compensate the town for accommodating millions of expected casino visitors.
Under that proposal, which the tribe rejected, in addition to the $7 million base payment, the town would have received 2 percent of gross gaming revenues, projected to be as high as $20 million a year, for a total of as much as $27 million a year.
The agreement also calls for the tribe to pay one-time costs of $2 million to train eight new police officers and 16 new emergency medical technicians, and to purchase two cruisers and two ambulances. The tribe also agreed to fund a program for counseling compulsive gamblers with an initial $40,000 donation, plus $20,000 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.
Still, until there's a shovel in the ground, the tribe is not ruling out other possibilities.
Marshall told reporters that he was scheduled to meet yesterday with Boston's mayor, Thomas M. Menino, who has proposed bringing a casino to Suffolk Downs in East Boston. The meeting, however, had to be canceled when Marshall got stuck in traffic.
"Nothing is ruled out," he said at a press conference.
Marshall predicted that Middleborough would support the deal. "At the end of the day, this is about a partnership between the town and the tribe," he said.
Bill Marzelli, a businessman and lifelong resident of Middleborough, said he believes the new deal will win over the majority of residents.
"I think the middle-of-the- roaders have to look at this as a very generous offer from a very generous people," Marzelli said. "There's no question in my mind that most of the people in this town will know a golden goose when they see one."
But Dr. David Parker, who lives in Middleborough and practices in Pembroke, said he opposes bringing a casino into his rural town.
"These numbers look good, and there might be some short-term gain for Middleborough, but in the long run, the expenses for services will exceed the benefits," Parker said. "Right now, there are a lot of people in town who remain undecided, and I think even with this agreement they will remain undecided. I think it's going to be a close vote."
Middleborough selectmen are scheduled to discuss the casino proposal on Monday, and have moved the meeting to the high school auditorium to accommodate an expected large crowd.
Officials from the Secretary of State's office, meanwhile, are monitoring plans to conduct the Town Meeting outdoors. Yesterday, town officials were scrambling to cover the $54,000 cost of renting three large canopies to protect attendees from the elements.
Marshall -- whose tribe is backed by Sol Kerzner and Len Wolman, the billionaire developers of the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Conn. -- is now beginning to focus on getting state approval. Legal specialists agree that the tribe needs at least an agreement with the governor and probably the Legislature, too.
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.
"We don't want to fight with the governor and the Legislature," Marshall said. "I think they are open. They are reasonable people."
Asked specifically about House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, who has expressed serious reservations about a casino, Marshall said, "If he has any issues, I am sure he will call me in to discuss them."
Sean P. Murphy can be reached at smurphy@globe.com. 