Tribe celebrates 'victorious day' as Senate ratifies casino compact
The Senate ratified a tribal-state compact Thursday that
allows the Mashpee Wampanoag to build a $500 million casino complex in Taunton.
The vote came with just five days to spare before a July 31 deadline that could have ended the tribe's dream of casino riches.
"It's an exciting, historical day," tribal council Chairman Cedric Cromwell said moments after the vote. "It's one more step toward the tribe having a destination resort casino in Taunton and bringing jobs to Southeastern Massachusetts. It's an exciting and victorious day."
The vote leaves just federal hurdles, although they are significant ones, in the way of an Indian casino in the Silver City. Under the compact, the tribe will pay the state 21.5 percent of gross gambling revenue in exchange for the state's assistance in clearing the most significant of procedural challenges — having the U.S. Department of the Interior take 146 acres in the city's industrial park and 170 acres in Mashpee into federal trust.
Only one senator spoke before the vote.
"It is a benefit to residents and citizens everywhere in Southeastern Massachusetts and to the commonwealth as a whole," Sen. Marc Pacheco, D-Taunton, said.
Many of the senators appeared to be still outside the chambers when the roll call vote began after nearly an hour's recess. The vote was 27-9 in favor of the compact, which already has been approved by the House and signed by tribal leaders and Gov. Deval Patrick.
Sen. Mark Montigny, D-New Bedford, who used a parliamentary procedure last week to delay the action, voted against it, as did Sen. Michael Rodrigues, D-Fall River. Some Southeastern Massachusetts legislators have criticized Patrick for not including a deadline for the tribe to get its land approvals, but tribe leaders have said that would have been a deal breaker.
"What we need now as a region is for the governor to state unequivocally that he hears our fears on transportation and on the timeline" for development of an Indian casino, Montigny said.
Senate President Therese Murray, D-Plymouth, and Sen. Daniel Wolf, D-Harwich, who represent the Cape and Islands, voted for the compact.
Patrick has called the agreement a "good deal" for the state. Administration officials said Thursday that the focus now shifts toward helping the tribe get its federal approvals. One of the state's legal advisers on the compact, Holland & Knight, has registered to lobby in Washington, D.C., on behalf of the tribe's land-in-trust application.
Cromwell praised Patrick, legislative leaders, the tribal council and tribe elders for their efforts in getting the deal done before the deadline.
focus shifts to feds
The governor hailed the landmark vote and thanked both chambers of the Legislature for approving the compact.
"This is an important milestone and a good deal for both the commonwealth and the tribe," Patrick said in a statement.
"It respects the inherent rights of the tribe, while adhering to the principles set forth in the Expanded Gaming Act."
Patrick said his administration will turn its "attention to the federal government and final approval of the compact and the tribe's land in trust application."
There is no set deadline for the tribe to file all of the documentation that goes along with its application, Nedra Darling, a spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, said earlier this week.
The Tribe's Federal Application -- Phew !!
But it's in the tribe's best interest to provide that documentation as soon as possible so the application can move forward, she said.
The tribe will have to convince the federal bureau that it is getting value in return for the revenue it will share with the state. It is against federal casino laws to tax Indian casinos, and the Wampanoag deal with Massachusetts is considered by experts to be the most lucrative deal for a state ever negotiated. The bureau must sign off on it.
The tribe must also convince the bureau that a 2009 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, known as the "Carcieri decision," does not apply to them. In that ruling, the court called into question the authority of the federal government to take land into trust for tribes recognized after the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.
In exchange for the casino revenue, Patrick has also agreed to work with the tribe to secure aboriginal hunting and fishing rights and to help with land claims in and around Mashpee.
state's support key
The land-in-trust application is no "open and shut case," but strong support from a state is unusual, if not unprecedented, and should go a long way with federal officials, said Steven Light, an Indian gaming expert at the University of North Dakota.
"Everything has moved very quickly. It would be a much more difficult road for the tribe if there had been more obstacles along the way and if it had taken a lot longer to get where we are," he said. "The demonstration of enthusiasm and support at the state level, with the local level, makes it much easier to smooth the way to the end of the road."
The tribe has been dismissed many times by casino critics — only to bounce back.
In 2007, an administrative scandal within the tribe appeared to derail a Middleboro project funded by South African casino moguls Sol Kerzner and Len Wolman.
But the tribe voted in Cromwell and Vice Chairman Aaron Tobey Jr., negotiated a severance agreement with Kerzner and Wolman and walked away from Middleboro. The tribe is now financed by Arkana Ltd., owned by the same family that owns Malaysian casino giant Genting Group.
[Oh? Where???? The deal was with their benefactor, Herb Strather, who subsidized Glenn Marshall's bribery to gain recognition.]
Although a deal in Fall River also fell through and Massachusetts took four years to legalize expanded gambling, the tribe is the first to reach a casino deal in the Bay State since the Expanded Gaming Act was passed in November.
Now the tribe has Patrick, a good friend of President Barack Obama, advocating for their federal application. "The alignment of federal, state and tribal interests, as well as the relationship between Patrick and Obama, bodes well for the tribe," Light said.
The tribe also has the benefit of having former U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat, as one of its lobbyists — something that also should help in Washington.
Ayup!
Standard-Times staff writer Steve DeCosta contributed to this report.
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120727/NEWS/207270318
For additional insight into the meaningless, Carver Chick
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