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Documents show Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe in dire financial situation

By Tanner Stening
Posted Jan 24, 2019

MASHPEE — The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe is running out of money.

Expenditures from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 of 2018 left the tribe with $83,670 in its general fund, according to a statement of its expenses and revenue for the year obtained by the Times.

The tribe began 2018 with $6,369,258 in the fund, and spent $6,285,589 as of the end of the year, the document shows.

Of the roughly $6.5 million the tribe allocated for general spending purposes for fiscal year 2018, $5.4 million came from loans issued by its financial backer, Genting Malaysia, which has been paying for tribal government operations; two separate lawsuits dealing with the legal status of the tribe reservation under the Indian Reorganization Act; and lobbying efforts behind a bill that would secure the land, all geared toward opening a $1 billion tribal casino in Taunton.

But the $5.4 million in loans the tribe received last year was half of what it received from Genting for fiscal year 2017. That year, the tribe received $11,944,567, an increase of approximately $250,000 from fiscal year 2016.

It is unclear if Genting is still funding tribal government operations. The international casino developer last year reported it had suffered a $440 million loss on its investment in the tribe, prompting dire warnings from the tribe’s chairman, Cedric Cromwell, that officials would have to lay off another round of government workers and cut programs. In response to increasing financial pressure from its backer, the tribe laid off 31 employees in the past year. It is also unclear what the tribe currently has in its coffers. Tribal financial records are not publicly available.

In 2017, Cromwell said the tribe’s annual operating budget was about $12 million.

On Wednesday, the tribal council took a vote of no-confidence in Cromwell and separately voted to strip him of his financial responsibilities in connection with the tribe and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Gaming Authority, a five-member board charged with overseeing the tribe’s long-stalled gaming operation.

In a statement issued Wednesday before sources confirmed the council’s vote, Cromwell said he would not disclose “tribal financial details to non-tribal citizens with so many of our enemies out there looking to seize on whatever information they can in an attempt to sow confusion and destruction.”

One of those enemies, according to Cromwell, is Chicago-based casino magnate and billionaire Neil Bluhm, who had backed a lawsuit by neighbors opposing the tribe’s proposed casino in Taunton.

Bluhm is backing a proposed casino in Brockton through Mass Gaming & Entertainment. Although the competing casino was originally denied by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission in 2016, the commission is now considering whether to reopen the bidding for commercial casinos in Southeastern Massachusetts, known as Region C.

Although the gaming commission had planned to discuss and move forward with a decision on opening up the region this month, it announced Thursday that it would hold off on doing so in light of the recent appointment by Gov. Charlie Baker of a new chairwoman to the board, Cathy Judd-Stein, current deputy legal counsel and a veteran government lawyer.

“Any decision we make should include our new chairwoman and giving her a little time to understand all the issues and read all the comments is certainly appropriate,” interim Chairwoman Gayle Cameron said.

If the tribe is able to move forward with its casino and there is a competing casino in the same region, it would not pay anything to the state. If it has exclusive rights to a casino in Southeastern Massachusetts, it would pay the state 17 percent of its gambling revenue.

On Tuesday, lobbying disclosures showed that the tribe, through a team of lobbyists, had spent $280,000 in the fourth quarter of 2018 on lobbying for legislation, reintroduced this congressional session by U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-Mass., that would end an ongoing legal challenge to the Obama administration’s decision to take 321 acres of land in Mashpee and Taunton into trust on the tribe’s behalf. A federal judge in 2016 found in favor of neighbors of the proposed Taunton casino who argued that decision had been faulty, prompting the U.S. Department of the Interior to reverse it, leaving the tribe in limbo.

The tribe has said its casino would create 4,000 jobs and $102 million in wages for workers in Taunton as well $24 million in wages for jobs in other parts of the state. An additional 2,990 jobs would be created during construction, according to the tribe.

“It’s no secret that we have been put in extremely difficult financial circumstances as a result of the uncertainty surrounding our reservation status,” Cromwell said. “Everyday that uncertainty lingers it further drains limited resources as we try to balance between providing vital services to Tribal Citizens while at the same time continuing a costly fight to retain our land.”

Genting spent more than $1 million on various lobbying firms in 2018, three times more than it did in 2017, according to federal lobbying disclosures. The overseas developer was the third biggest spender on tourism/lodging lobbying in the U.S. this past year, according to the website Open Secrets.

https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20190124/documents-show-mashpee-wampanoag-tribe-in-dire-financial-situation