Mashpee Wampanoag behind on payments to Taunton
By Jessica Hill
Posted May 13, 2020
Tribal leader denies report that arrears would be made up through bingo hall.
TAUNTON — The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe is late with its annual payment of more than $500,000 to the city of Taunton in accordance with the two entities’ intergovernmental agreement, and there is some confusion as to how that payment will be made.
Taunton city councilors were surprised Tuesday night to learn in a letter from the city’s legal department that the tribe planned to pay through revenue it would receive from establishment of a “tribal bingo hall.”
A leader of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe said he also was surprised.
“There are no plans for a bingo hall or any other financing strategies at this point because the tribe is too busy fighting to protect our ancestral lands against attacks from the Department of Interior during the global COVID-19 pandemic,” Tribal Council Chairman Cedric Cromwell said in a statement. “We look forward to continuing to work closely with the City of Taunton and the town of Mashpee and finding ways to support each other.”
The tribe, which owns 150 acres of reservation land close to the intersections of routes 24 and 140 in Taunton, made an agreement with the city in 2012 based on expected revenue from its proposed $1 billion First Light Resort and Casino. The tribe was to pay the city at least $8 million every year once the casino was operating or 2.05% of its net slot revenue.
The casino and resort were projected to bring more than $50 million in revenue to the state and create more than 1,000 permanent jobs as well as 1,000 construction jobs.
As the tribe has been stuck in a legal tug-of-war with neighbors of the proposed casino who oppose the project and with the Interior Department over its land-in-trust status, that casino has yet to come to fruition.
The tribe has been paying Taunton a rate of $27.62 per $1,000 of assessed valuation every year instead of property taxes because of the land’s tax-exempt status, usually totaling a little more than $500,000.
In the past few years the tribe has been sending those payments through a wire transfer from a New York bank. Taunton Treasurer-Collector Barbara Auger previously commended the tribe on its continued commitment to make the payments.
Matthew J. Costa, first assistant city solicitor, wrote in a May 8 letter to the Taunton City Council that payment was due from the tribe in November. The Law Department issued a formal notice March 31 disputing the nonpayment, and the tribe asked for an extension.
That extension was agreed to based on the expectation the tribe would raise revenue through establishment of a tribal bingo hall, according to the letter.
“However, the establishment of a tribal bingo hall has not been realized due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Costa wrote in the letter.
If the tribe does not pay, the city would take action in Superior Court.
Cromwell said he had no idea how the city got the impression the tribe would establish a bingo hall. He also said the tribe would make its payment as part of the agreement, although he would not specify when or how that payment would be made.
“We’re going to pay it,” Cromwell said. “We’re working through it.”
Costa and City Solicitor David Gay could not be reached for additional comment on where they heard about plans for a bingo hall.
“This is the first I heard the possibility of a bingo parlor being on that site,” Taunton City Councilor David Pottier said at Tuesday’s meeting.
“Secondly, I find it somewhat incredulous that they’re blaming COVID for not being able to make a payment ... that was due in November when COVID only really took the scene in the last month or so,” Pottier said. “I find their excuse totally inadequate.”
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