Tribes maintain MGM’s third-casino ‘math’ doesn’t add up

A spokesman for the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes claimed Monday that MGM Resorts International’s “own math” shows that development of a casino in Fairfield County would be costly for the state.

“By their own math, the RFP process they’ve been pushing for months comes up many millions short of the current revenue the tribes provide to the state,” Andrew Doba said in a news release. “... We simply can’t go down a path that only worsens the state’s fiscal and employment outlook.”

Doba based his claim on an MGM official’s statement last week that a “New York-facing casino with a 35 percent tax rate would generate more than $260 million in tax revenue and fees.”

“The problem?” Doba said. “Last year, the tribes contributed nearly $270 million to the state’s General Fund.”

Those contributions — 25 percent of the slot-machine revenues generated by the tribes’ respective casinos, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun — have declined by 38 percent over the last decade, falling from a high of $430.5 million in the 2006-07 fiscal year to $265.9 million in 2015-16. The payments would cease altogether if and when the state authorized another entity to operate a commercial casino.

Uri Clinton, the MGM senior vice president Doba referenced, defended MGM’s position Monday.

“I’m not really clear on the point Mr. Doba is trying to make,” Clinton said. “It appears that he is the only one who does not understand that the tribal payments to the state are continuing to decline. Here’s what’s clear: If Connecticut wants to triple the number of jobs that can be created and double the amount of revenue the state takes in, the only way to do that is through the competitive bid process.”

The latest back-and-forth between MGM and the tribes comes in the wake of a CT Mirror interview in which Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said the only casino-expansion proposal he would endorse — if approved by legislators — is one granting the tribes the exclusive right to develop a third casino.

“I will not sign a transaction or bill that puts into real danger our existing arrangement with the tribal nations ...,” Malloy told the online news outlet in the interview published Friday.

“We respectfully disagree with the governor’s assessment,” Clinton said.

Citing a legal opinion that state Attorney General George Jepsen delivered months ago, Clinton said granting the tribes the exclusive right to build a casino in East Windsor could jeopardize the tribes’ payments to the state “because it presents real constitutional challenges.”

MGM Resorts is building a $950 million casino in Springfield, Mass., where it poses a competitive threat to Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun.