The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Bridgeport casino plan hits a wall in the Capitol
HARTFORD — The push to bring a multimillion dollar casino development to Bridgeport has ended — for this year — the Bridgeport and New Haven delegations conceded in a joint meeting with MGM at the Capitol Tuesday afternoon.
“We did immensely well in moving the bill from the committee to the House,” said Rep. Toni Walker, D-New Haven. “We think that this is a good starting place for us next year.”
Passing a bill the first year it is proposed is very difficult, the lawmakers said. They hope chances for passage will be better next year when lawmakers have more time to work on legislation and their colleagues are more familiar with the proposal.
“It gives us a lot of momentum coming out of a short session into a long session next year, to continue to advance this and continue to push for taxbased growth and jobs and opportunities for the Bridgeport-New Haven corridor,” said Rep. Steve Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport.
MGM Resorts International has proposed a $700 million seaside casino resort in Bridgeport and a job training center in New Haven. The Las Vegas company has promised to create 2,000 permanent jobs and 5,000 construction jobs.
Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim called the development a job creator for all of Connecticut in a phone interview Tuesday night.
“We need to continue to push for this, the sooner the better,” he said.
MGM remains committed to continuing to pursue the development, confirmed Uri Clinton, MGM senior vice president, Tuesday.
In fact, the company is used to these kinds of delays. It took nearly three years to pass a bill to bring an MGM casino to Massachusetts and, even after that, local and state referendums were needed. Six years passed from legislative proposal to groundbreaking.
“Rarely we have gaming policy that moves so far in a single session,” Clinton said.
The bill would have directed the state to issue a request for proposals for a fourth casino in Connecticut — possibly in Bridgeport. The bill did not authorize a new casino; the General Assembly would have had to vote on that in another year, after gathering the market information.
In a strong showing of unity, the Bridgeport and New Haven delegations pressured their colleagues for passage of the bill throughout the 2018 session, after it failed to reach the House floor in 2017. Following a rocky start, the bill cleared the Public Safety Committee in March.
On Friday, it cleared the House by a nail-biting 77-73 vote that brought tears of relief to the eyes of Rep. Chris Rosario, DBridgeport.
But by Tuesday afternoon, with less than 36 hours left before the Legislature was set to adjourn, it was evident the bill did not have enough votes from either party to pass the Senate.
Many lawmakers had concerns about how a Bridgeport casino would impact a 25-year-old exclusivity agreement Connecticut has with the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot tribes, which operate Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods casinos, respectively. That agreement provides the state more than $200 million a year in revenue.
Sen. Ed Gomes, DBridgeport, said he decided not to force a Senate vote — which would likely fail — through an amendment, because “We’re not obstructionist.”
“Some folks in the Senate, they just won’t play our way, and we could go up there and force them to run bills or take all sorts of action, but that isn’t what we are seeking,” he said. “We are seeking some sort of cohesiveness so we can move in the future in a way that is constructive.”
The meeting was attended by Robert W. Christoph Jr. and his father, Robert W. Christoph, of RCI group, the master developers for the casino site.
Although casino legislation was stalled, the overall redevelopment of Bridgeport harbor is moving quickly, Christoph Jr. said, exiting the meeting with his father and MGM’s Clinton.
“We realize that change is hard and takes time, and we respect the delegations’ preference not to dominate debate with this issue with much to accomplish in a short time in the session’s final hours,” the developers said in a joint statement with MGM Tuesday evening.