6.12.07
Mashpees Will Offer Mass. Town $7M A Year
Middleborough selectmen to vote on hosting Indian casino
By Rodrique Ngowi
Associated Press Writer
Boston — The Mashpee Wampanoags will present Middleborough selectmen with a draft agreement in which the town agrees to host an Indian casino in exchange for $7 million dollars annually, over the next 10 years, a tribal spokesman said Monday.
Tribal elders will present the draft host agreement Wednesday night. The two sides settled on the principles of the draft deal during negotiations that began six weeks ago, and the draft fleshes out details of the proposal, Wampanoag spokesman Scott Ferson said.
The Mashpee Wampanoags received federal recognition as a tribe on Feb. 15. The federal status became official May 23. Under federal law, Indian tribes cannot be taxed, and the $7 million annual payment to Middleborough is supposed to be payment in lieu of taxes.
That is equivalent to about quarter of property taxes currently being collected by the town, and about 10 percent of Middleborough's budget, said tribal spokeswoman Amy Lambiaso.
The Middleborough town manager did not immediately return repeated calls for comment.
Under the proposal, casino developers agreed to meet the cost of improvements in water, sewer, roadway and other infrastructure. They also will pay for any increase in police, fire and emergency services related to the casino, Ferson said.
Those costs are expected to run between $80-150 million, he said.
In exchange, town officials will be required to support the casino proposal in upcoming talks with state and federal officials. This includes petitioning the Department of Interior to place the Wampanoag land in Middleborough in federal trust for its members. The tribe currently owns 375 acres of land in the town.
Under the proposed agreement, town officials also will be obliged to help casino developers negotiate with Massachusetts officials a deal that would exempt the project from the current prohibition against slot machines.
“With the approval of this agreement — should it happen — the town and the tribe would be partners moving forward with the petition to take the land into trust,” Ferson said.
Wampanoag representatives also are negotiating with New Bedford town officials to set up economic projects in the area.
“The conversations with New Bedford have been much more far-reaching than just a casino. There have been a whole list of economic development opportunities, and they will continue,” Ferson said. “Manufacturing and aquaculture have been two (proposals) that have come up.”
“Indian tribes across the country did do a host of manufacturing concerns — everything from defense subcontracting to operating Free Trade Zones,” he said.
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