In Brockton, MA, an Economic Opportunity Is Jeopardized by National Politics
As the mayor of Brockton, Massachusetts, about 20 miles south of Boston, my priority and responsibility to my city and its residents is to rebuild Brockton’s economy, finance the renovation of Brockton High School, and insure that our residents have the necessary public safety services for our police and fire departments. While we have made significant progress in Brockton over the past four years, the economic challenges we face are stark, and our unemployment rate remains higher than the state average.
In order to continue the revitalization of Brockton, we envision a detailed plan to build a sports and entertainment district near the site of the Brockton Fairgrounds that would include a resort casino, which would pump $60 million per year into our local economy.
However, in 2016, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission rejected our casino proposal, which was backed by Rush Street Gaming, a Chicago-based casino and real estate company with the most successful suburban casinos in the country. The commission expressed concerns about over-saturation, as the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe had announced plans in late 2015 to construct a $1 billion casino — backed by Genting, a Malaysian casino company — just 17 miles away from Brockton in Taunton, Massachusetts.
This may appear to be a merely local issue, but the jurisdiction of tribal rights has been elevated to the federal level. A Supreme Court ruling (Carcieri v. Salazar) makes it clear that, because the Mashpee do not meet the federal statutory requirements, the Department of the Interior does not have the right to take East Taunton land into trust to allow the Mashpee to build a casino.
Only tribes that have been under federal jurisdiction since 1934 are eligible to have lands taken into trust. Despite this fact, the Obama administration placed thousands of acres of land into trust for tribes, including the land in East Taunton, with hardly any concern for the rule of law as stated by the high court in the Carcieri decision. Citizens of East Taunton, who objected to this blatant federal agency overreach, quickly filed a lawsuit challenging the decision, and the U.S. District Court agreed with them in an expedited decision. Judge William Young stated, “This was not a close call.”
Instead of letting the judicial decision rest, members of Congress — Rep. William Keating (D-MA-9) and Sens. Edward Markey (D-MA) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) — introduced legislation to circumvent Judge Young’s decision. The legislation was expressly promoted as a way to preempt the expected decision by Interior (under the new presidential administration) to abide by Carcieri and deny the Mashpee’s application once and for all.
H.R. 5244 and S. 2628 are intended to force the Interior Department’s 2015 Obama-era decision into federal law by “reaffirming” a reservation on “trust lands” in East Taunton, despite existing law to the contrary, a federal court decision to the contrary, and the opposition of East Taunton residents.
This is special interest legislation and bad policy, plain and simple. Genting Malaysia, the casino group backing the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s effort to build a casino, has already invested over $388 million in the effort.
Members of Congress who are supporting H.R. 5244 and S. 2628 are hindering the building of a Brockton commercial casino and ultimately supporting foreign interests over local American jobs. The Brockton casino expected to create almost 2000 permanent well-paying jobs for Brockton and surrounding communities. Given these facts, Mass Gaming & Entertainment has requested reconsideration of Brockton’s application with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to build a commercial casino in Brockton.
The agreement between Brockton and the casino developer includes a “residency preference” in hiring and it is estimated that 80 percent of the 1,800 new jobs created will go to Brockton residents, a City with a minority/majority population of African-Americans, Cape Verdeans, Haitians, and Latinos. It also includes a local purchasing agreement that requires the casino to look first in Brockton whenever purchasing goods or services. This requirement will generate millions of dollars per year in sales for Brockton-based businesses, creating additional jobs in the private sector.
The casino resort would bring four-star hotels and first-class restaurants to a community that currently has none. It is expected that Brockton would receive $10–12 million in annual payments from the casino developer while the Commonwealth of Massachusetts would receive an estimated $70 million in annual tax revenue once the Brockton casino is operating.
The Mashpee Tribe has had years to make their case for federal recognition and to attempt to get land-in-trust approval. Over two years after Brockton’s bid for a casino was denied, principally because of the uncertainty about a tribal casino, it is clear to every reasonable person that there will be no tribal casino in Massachusetts, certainly not in the near future.
It is time for the Interior Department to make a decision on the tribe’s land-in-trust status, for Congress to reject the proposed legislation sponsored by Congressman Keating, and for the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to reconsider the Brockton application for a commercial casino license. My city should not be held hostage any longer.
Bill Carpenter is the mayor of Brockton, Massachusetts.
