Task force proposes amendments to casino bill

By Douglas Farmer
Turley Publications Staff Writer

REGION -When House Speaker Robert DeLeo (D-Winthrop) released his proposed bill to expand gambling in the Commonwealth two weeks ago, Western Mass. Casino Task Force Chairman and Monson Selectman Edward Harrison pored over its contents, looking for evidence of input from officials in this region. The result of his search? Disappointment.
Last year, the task force – comprised of officials from Palmer (where a casino has been proposed), Monson, Ware, Brimfield, Holland, Warren, Sturbridge, West Brookfield, Wilbraham and other nearby communities – sent a letter crafted with the aid of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission to a host of legislators outlining hopes for safeguards for local infrastructure, education and housing, local representation on a gaming commission and mitigation trust funds for casino-related after construction. But in the end, Harrison said that such communications from the task force and other entities seemed to be left out of DeLeo’s legislation.
“As far as I can tell, after our 2 and a half years of hard work, much of this is a rehash of Gov. Deval Patrick’s bill,” said Harrison, referring to Patrick’s ill-fated proposal for three destination resort casinos two years ago. “There is very little discussion of impacts on a region or of a cost-benefit analysis, which were two of the points we really wanted to drive home.”
DeLeo set aside a few days this week for debate of his legislation officially filed two weeks ago, accounting for 3,000 slot machines at the state’s four racetracks and two resort casinos, and the establishment of a division of gaming enforcement and five-member gaming commission appointed by the governor, treasurer and attorney general. It projected a $100 million licensing fee for each resort casino and a $15 million licensing fee for each racetrack where slots or established. It allowed for a tax on revenue of 25 percent on casinos, though only about two percent of that was earmarked for alleviation of local impacts to services revolving around the casino.
The Connecticut-based Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority has leased about 150 acres off the Massachusetts Turnpike in Palmer from Northeast Realty for the purpose of constructing a casino, events center, shops and restaurants – essentially a scaled-down version of that entity’s flagship facility adjacent to Uncasville, Conn. Officials from Mohegan said they were pleased with what DeLeo had brought forward.
“We applaud Speaker DeLeo for his efforts to move this initiative forward,” said Mohegan’s chief operating officer Jeff Hartmann. “This establishes a framework for gaming in Massachusetts and the creation of jobs and new revenues for Western Massachusetts and the entire Commonwealth. We look forward to the opportunity to compete for a destination casino license, and to further demonstrate why Palmer is the premier site in Massachusetts.”
Hartmann and others have long contended that such a development locally would produce at least a few thousand jobs, either in the casino itself or ancillary businesses.
Nevertheless, following their Wednesday, April 7 meeting in the Monson Town Office Building, the task force forwarded a number of recommended amendments to DeLeo’s bill to state Rep. Brian Ashe (D-Longmeadow), state Rep. Anne Gobi (D-Spencer) and others, which were officially due by the end of last week. These proposed amendments included four non-voting members of the gaming commission (one each from a host community and the surrounding region); the ability of nearby communities to petition for mitigation funds if they can demonstrate impact; the stated needs of local and regional education, infrastructure, housing and the environment; the raising of the $15 million figure for potential mitigation to $50 million; and the increase of mitigation percentage from two percent to ten percent.
“It really seems like there isn’t enough money here to protect us,” said Warren Selectman Robert Souza Jr.
Holland Planning Board Chairwoman Lynn Arnold agreed, pointed to the task force’s extensive letter last year. “There was a long list of other things that we hoped a mitigation fund could be used for,” she said.
Pioneer Valley Planning Commission Executive Director Timothy Brennan said it was unrealistic to expect a “wholesale reconfiguration” of DeLeo’s proposal prior to a vote. But he said communities may at least be able to petition for relief from the gaming commission.
“This is just the law,” said Harrison. “The devil will really be in the regulations that are adopted.”
Daniel Zwirko, an aide to Ashe, said that he was working with other representatives including Gobi and state Rep. Todd Smola (R-Palmer) to file amendments electronically. He added that Ashe was opposed to DeLeo’s bill, but that the clerk would call for the reading of each amendment – likely in the hundreds – and a vote on each one.
“It’s similar to the way the budget process works and then the Senate would have to weigh in with its own version,” said Zwirko. “I do feel badly for the task force, that was given very little time to prepare amendments; but they’re on the Statehouse server now.”