Progress for Maine, the campaign committee that seeks to persuade voters to approve, Question A, which would authorize a casino in York County that only a man named Shawn Scott could legally build, has released a study that claims the casino would create up to 5,000 jobs and generate 8 million in taxes.
The study was conducted by Evans, Carroll and Associates (ECA) which reported that the project could generate 2,165 permanent jobs and 2,767 temporary building jobs. It would inject about $183.2 million into the state’s economy in the form of salaries.
One of the authors of the report, Dr. Michael K. Evans commented, “Our analysis suggests that the economic impact of a gaming venue of the size being proposed would be significant – an approximate increase of $580.6 million in Maine’s GDP. That information, combined with the job and household income gains we project to accompany the project, suggests to us that development like this could have a long-lasting effect on York County and Maine as a whole.”
The campaign’s spokesman, Rebecca Foster, added, “New jobs and economic development are two of the top priorities for Maine voters right now, and this remarkable project will put more people to work and drive new money into our state’s economy. We hope residents will vote Yes on Question 1 this November.”
Rep. Louis Luchini, whose Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee is trying to dig up as much information on this proposal and its backers as possible and broadcast it widely before the election, reacted to the publication of the study with skepticism, and said that the report left a lot of things out: “Based on the first bullet point in this study, the impact is based on a resort casino with a hotel and a convention center, but none of those are required in the ballot question law as it is proposed,” he said in a statement. “These are the same empty promises of jobs and development that we have seen time and time again and they have not come to fruition.”
The firm that prepared the report is controversial and was in the news recently over its assistance of Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, in his attempt to qualify a family owned building in New Jersey for a federal investment program that employs the EB-5 visa program.
Not coincidentally, one of the donors for Progress for Maine is American General Corp., whose specialty is EB-5 investments. The copy is headed by David Wilson, a partner of Shawn Scott, the sole beneficiary if Question 1 passes.
Scott, a casino developer with global connections, and whose Bridge Capital is based in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory, was the man who qualified an initiative in 2003 that brought Maine its first casino, the Hollywood Casino in Bangor. The initiative was approved, but Scott, under intense scrutiny by state regulators at the time, sold the rights to the casino to Penn National Gaming, which owns it today. If Question 1 wins in November, it could be worth $200 million to Scott, even if all he does is sell the rights to it as he did in 2003.
Luchini says he believes that will happen this time. He told the Portland Press Herald, “This would be one of the various shell companies Shawn Scott operates, and if they were to get the casino, … they would flip to somebody else almost immediately because I don’t think this guy Shawn Scott would ever be able to get a license in the United States.”
Luchini says he prefers that if the state gets another casino it be done by competitive bidding. A recent study the legislature commissioned said that the state could absorb another casino, but it recommended that a competitive bidding process be used to approve it, one that would require a minimum investment of $250 million.
When asked about ECA’s Trump connection, a spokesman for Progress for Maine commented, “Evans, Carroll & Associates is a highly regarded economic consultant with a long list of clients. We can’t speak to their other projects, but they were hired on the basis of their reputation for quality work, and we believe their expertise is reflected in the study they completed yesterday.”
Other companies connected to Scott, and to the Question 1 campaign, include Capital Seven, based in Las Vegas, and Japan-based Regent Able Associate Co. Both companies have donated to the Question 1 campaign.
Donors to the campaign are being investigated by the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices, which has tried to shake loose financial documents from all companies associated with the campaign. Backers are also being investigated by Luchini’s committee.
A new twist in the campaign is the attack by the Progress for Maine of Churchill Downs, the company that owns the other operating casino in Maine, the Oxford. It bought the casino in 2013. Churchill Downs is expected to take part in fighting Question 1, although so far, no opposition PAC has registered with the state.
