Communities in Southeastern Massachusetts are voicing objections to Governor Deval Patrick's plans for casinos in their region and elsewhere around the state, saying his legislation would fail to protect neighboring towns from spillover traffic and other stresses brought by a huge gambling facility.
The objections, surfacing in a draft letter by a regional task force, represent the latest political trouble for Patrick's casino plan, which he hopes would generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the state.
The community leaders, representing 18 communities, may recommend that a referendum vote be taken by an entire region surrounding a proposed casino, creating a significant hurdle for any casino plan. Patrick's legislation envisions a ballot vote by the community hosting the casino, not by the entire region.
Organized as the Regional Task Force on Casino Impacts, the leaders in Southeastern Massachusetts also maintain that the governor's proposal fails to document its forecast of the benefits to communities surrounding a casino.
"The biggest issue with the task force is that the governor based the legislation on some studies, but no one has been able to get the studies," said Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southeast Regional Planning and Economic Development District. "The questions the task force raised were: Where did they come to the conclusion of three casinos for the state and what was the basis for their job estimates?"
Smith has drafted a letter to Patrick based on the concerns of task force members. The group plans to finalize the letter at its Dec. 19 meeting.
Kofi Jones, spokeswoman for Patrick as well as the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, declined to respond directly to the task force's letter because she had not seen it.
Defending the governor's proposal, Jones said a "community mitigation fund" in Patrick's legislation would provide money to neighboring towns." And the amount of money made available will grow as revenue grows," she said. "We believe that will ensure that we can properly protect communities surrounding the resort casino."
She said 500 pages of briefing materials were made available to the public for $39.50 at the time the governor announced his casino proposal. But not all materials, including some studies that factored into the decision-making process, have been made public, she added.
Middleborough has negotiated a $11 million agreement with the Wampanoag to build a casino there, prompting concerns from neighboring towns. Towns around a casino site could experience increased traffic and housing demand.
John Bruno, a selectman from Halifax who is on the regional task force, said the group has yet to see "one shred of evidence" backing up the assertion that the casino will increase economic development. "Who did the studies and why can't we see them? To me, there just seems to be a lot of assumptions made," he said.
Ken Tavares, a Plymouth selectman and task force member, said doing studies after the legislation is approved will be too late. "We need to know upfront there will be people to assist us if this does go through. The state requires towns to do strategic planning. All we're saying is practice what you preach."
In its draft letter, the task force protests lack of representation on the proposed seven-member Massachusetts Gaming Control Authority and 12-member Advisory Committee, two panels included in Patrick's legislation.
"Our task force was organized because we had no voice in the negotiations between the Mashpee Wampanoag and the Town of Middleborough, and yet we will collectively suffer the negative impacts of the facility," the task force's letter states. "We must rely on the state for inclusion in the negotiation and mitigation process, but the proposed legislation does not address that."
The Gaming Authority will have the power to both collect and spend funds. Smith said there is an assumption in Patrick's legislation that the authority will be "benevolent" to towns around the casino. But there is no guarantee of help, Smith contended.
"The worst case scenario could be the money is collected from a Southeastern Massachusetts casino and then distributed statewide or in another part of the state," Smith said. "There weren't sufficient assurances that there would be a correlation between the inconvenience and problems a casino would bring and mitigation."
Acushnet Selectman David Wojnar suggested that the letter urge a regional referendum vote on a casino.
"The whole reason why the task force was formed was we all felt we were shut out of the process," Wojnar said. "Requiring referendum votes inserts us into the process and guarantees our concerns are heard. Mitigation is important, but you have to attack this at the starting line."
The draft letter's final suggestion is that revenue from casino gambling be given back to struggling cities and towns as state aid rather than in the form of tax credits to individual homeowners.
Casino specialist Clyde Barrow is set to make a presentation to the regional task force at the Dec. 19 meeting as well. The task force meeting begins at 7 p.m. at the Lakeville public library.
Christine Wallgren can be reached at CLWallgren@aol.com.
