Now that work has begun on the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe’s First Light casino in Taunton, the city could begin to see the economic benefits of the billion project.
It is a project that will include 3,000 slot machines, three hotels totaling 900 rooms, a water park, retail shopping and dining.
One hundred years ago Taunton, which was then a prosperous city, was known as the Silver City, because it was the home of a celebrated silversmith, Reed & Barton. That was long ago. Today, the city’s residents are hopeful of a bit alchemy whereby the Silver City will be transformed into a Gold City by virtue of hosting the tribe’s casino.
There is something of a local debate going on right now. Supporters of Project First Light see an unbroken future of economic development ahead.
Mashpee Chairman Cedric Cromwell sounded that note during the groundbreaking two weeks ago. “This is a historic day in the tribe’s history. It’s a signal that something great is about to happen,” he said.
At that same ceremony Taunton Mayor Thomas Hoye Jr. declared that the casino would be a “game changer,” for his town and the entire southeastern region of the state. “Local people are working more, and dollars are being spent locally,” Hoye added.
The Taunton Gazette interviewed Adam Bond, attorney for 24 Taunton residents who are suing the federal government for putting the land in Taunton into trust making it reservation land. They definitely don’t see a financial boom just around the corner.
“My clients are concerned about the negative impacts of a casino on their traffic, on their lighting, on their way of life. It’s a rural residential area,” said Bond, adding, “They’re concerned about crime. You’re looking at this place being near schools and churches. They’re worried about gambling addiction and alcoholism.”
City councilman David Pottier, who opposed the Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) between the tribe and city in 2012 because it wasn’t advantageous enough for the city, points to the agreement between Steve Wynn and the city of Everett. Wynn is paying Everett $25 million annually, while the Mashpees will pay Taunton $8 million.
“The proof’s in the pudding,” he says. Pottier also doesn’t think gaming will help the local economy. “Even (former governor) Patrick said casinos are not an economic development platform to build a budget on,” he said. Pottier also believes that entertainment money spent at the casino will be money that won’t be spent at other local businesses.
The Gazette also interviewed Taunton historian and writer Bill Hanna, whose views are more moderated. “I’m optimistic about the casino if it is able to deliver what it promises. Then it will be beneficial to the city, but I don’t think it will save the city. Saving the city of Taunton will come regionally. It will come from Southcoast rail. It will come from healthy vibrant community colleges. It will come from an emphasis on STEM (science technology engineering math) in local public schools to prepare people for high-skilled jobs,” he said.
He also doesn’t believe the casino will change the quality of life in the community. It will just be “another business,” he said.
Former Taunton economic development director Dick Shafer, who now has his own development services business called Shafer Development Services, provides some of that expertise to the Taunton Development Corporation (TDC), a non-profit that sold two-thirds of the 151 acres to the Mashpee tribe.
“Jobs and taxes,” is what Shafer hopes to see created in the old Liberty & Union business park. He also points to the tribe’s guarantees to provide direct payments to the city as well as mitigation payments and improvements to infrastructure.
Tom Smith, general manager of the Silver City Galleria, a local mall near to the site of the casino, told the Gazette that the casino means, “more visits, so we’re excited to welcome them to the area.”
Taunton’s Office of Economic and Community Development Executive Director Kevin Shea says the casino will help the mall, but will also lift the entire city’s economic “There will be a spin-off effect,” he told the Gazette.
Sixty-three percent of the city’s voters approved of the casino in a referendum in June 2012. Since then, however, some have experienced voters’ remorse, to judge by comments on Facebook. Or else the third that disapproved of the casino then are making more noise than their numbers would suggest.
Last week a former resident of Atlantic City commented on Facebook about the casino that will be built just down the street from him. “I come from Jersey and Atlantic City is one of the most rundown and poverty-stricken cities. Property values are rock bottom. Homelessness is the norm. It costs the state more to run it than the casinos take in. Crime is through the roof with no means of stopping it. Taunton already has murders prostitution and high heroin trafficking and usage and now the council is bringing gambling into the mix. It’s clear that the council didn’t do a crime analysis. All they see is dollar signs. We the taxpayer as always are on the losing end.”
Historian Hanna notes that the city’s economic condition is long-term. He doesn’t expect to see a casino solve it. “It’s unfair to expect the casino to revive Taunton and Southeastern Massachusetts. The depressed wages in this region are so entrenched, no one entity can reverse that,” he said.
The Taunton school district is asking for more money than what the city bargained for on its behalf from the tribe in the IGA. That agreement calls for the tribe to pay the school district a one-time payment of $300,000. School Supt. Julie Hackett called for more on the day after the groundbreaking. She told members of her board on April 6 that the schools should receive $900,000 and that it should get an annual payment.
The district points to a study that shows that the district will get more students as a result of people moving into the area to work near or at the casino.
Mayor Hoye disputes that. His view is that those who will work at the casino already live in the area.
Meanwhile, although the tribe is in the midst of a federal lawsuit challenging the BIA’s land into trust decision, it is pushing forwarded relentlessly, even though an unfavorable decision could force the tribe to stop building, or close the casino if it’s already open.
That’s a very unlikely result, say legal observers, who cannot cite an instance of any tribal casino being forced to shut its doors, especially since it is being defended by the U.S. government.
That’s also the opinion of the tribe’s attorney, Arlinda Locklear, who told the Boston Globe “The odds are very slim to virtually nonexistent” that the challenge would stop the casino.
The plaintiffs hang their lawsuit on the U.S. Supreme Court’s Carcieri v. Salazar decision that said that tribe’s recognized by the government after 1934 cannot put land into trust. The Mashpees were recognized in 2007, but say that the tribe had relations with the federal government and before that the British crown dating back to the days when the Pilgrims colonized Plymouth in 1620.
Adam Bond, attorney for the plaintiffs, disagrees. “The federal government grossly overstepped its authority,” he claims. “We are prepared to take our case all the way” to the Supreme Court, Bond said.
Legal experts note that the Carcieri decision is open to interpretation. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, while fully aware of the decision, granted the Mashpees’ application to put land into trust, they note—and did so for other tribes as well.
Washington D.C. attorney Dennis Whittlesey, an expert in Indian law told the Boston Globe, “Those challenging the Mashpee have to prove a negative—that the tribe was not under federal jurisdiction in 1934—and it’s very hard to prove a negative in the law. There’s a lot of ways to argue the tribe meets the requirements of the law, despite that Supreme Court case. And the tribe only needs one of them to work.”
