State, tribes, Interior agree MGM lacks standing to intervene in third-casino lawsuit
By Brian Hallenbeck
Both sides in the legal dispute over the U.S. Department of the Interior’s failure to act on gaming agreements between the state and the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes agree on one thing: MGM Resorts International shouldn’t be allowed to weigh in.
At stake is the federal approval the tribes need to open a casino on nontribal land in East Windsor.
In filings Monday, attorneys for the tribes and the Interior Department and its secretary, Ryan Zinke, argue that MGM Resorts, an opponent of the East Windsor project, lacks standing to intervene in the case. The Las Vegas-based operator, which is building a nearly $1 billion resort casino in Springfield, Mass., had sought intervener status in a December filing.
The state and the tribes sued Interior in November in a bid to compel the department to act on gaming amendments that specify the terms of the tribes’ exclusive revenue-sharing agreements with the state. The tribes, which share with the state the slot-machine revenue generated by their respective casinos — Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun — will similarly share gaming revenue from the East Windsor casino.
An Interior official declined to act on the amendments last September, finding that the department lacked sufficient information and that a decision may be unnecessary. The state and the tribes claimed that under federal regulations, the department's failure to act and to publish notice of the inaction conferred “deemed approved” status on the agreements.
In their brief, attorneys for Interior say the case involves interpretation of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, the 1988 law that governs gaming on tribal lands.
“MGM’s motion to intervene should be denied because this case is based on statutory interpretation of IGRA’s tribal-state compact review and remedial provisions,” the attorneys wrote. “MGM is a commercial gaming operator that does not have an adequate interest in this dispute to justify its intervention ...”
MGM’s claim that the East Windsor facility would harm its Springfield casino and make it more difficult to enter the Connecticut casino market is too speculative to establish standing, Interior argues.
“MGM does not belong in this case,” attorneys for the tribes stated flatly in their brief. “MGM has no standing in this case because it has failed to identify an imminent, concrete particularized injury that is either causally connected to this controversy or would be redressed by resolution of this case.”
In a separate filing, the state joined the tribes’ opposition to MGM’s motion to intervene.
The state also objected to Interior’s motion last month seeking “partial dismissal” of the lawsuit because of circumstances surrounding the Mashantuckets’ original gaming agreement with the state. The agreement, or compact, was imposed by the Interior secretary rather than negotiated between the tribe and the state as was the case with the Mohegans' agreement.
In the state’s brief, Assistant Attorney General Mark Kohler wrote that, less than a year ago, an Interior official “explicitly denoted” the two tribes’ agreements “collectively” as “compacts.”
“In a stunning about-face, the Defendants now ask this Court to adopt a hyper-technical reading of the law that would create two classes of compacts ... stripping one of key protections and safeguards otherwise afforded by IGRA and related federal regulations,” Kohler wrote. “The statutory construction urged by the Defendants places form over substance in a way that would lead to absurd results.”
On Monday, the tribes hosted a ceremonial start to demolition work at the East Windsor casino site. No concrete timetable for construction was announced.
Norwich city funding rejected for Reid & Hughes project
Norwich — A review committee for the downtown revitalization fund voted unanimously Tuesday to reject the application for a $150,000 grant by the preferred developer for the Reid & Hughes building, a move that could kill the proposed $6 million renovation of the long-vacant, city-owned building.
The committee felt the project “did not fit into the objective of the downtown revitalization program,” Robert Mills, president of the Norwich Community Development Corp. said in a statement following the vote. NCDC oversees the revitalization program.
The Women’s Institute for Housing and Economic Development, the city’s preferred developer in what is considered the last chance to save the decaying former department store on Main Street, planned to use the city grant as the final piece in a combination of grants and loans for an initial stabilization of the building.
The institute submitted a plan to convert the 19th-century building into 20 apartments and street-level commercial space. But the Women’s Institute’s board of directors balked at committing to loans for the initial $500,000 stabilization work in fear that the building ultimately couldn’t be saved.
Women’s Institute Executive Director Betsy Crum could not be reached for comment Tuesday evening. On Monday night, she told the City Council that the institute had obtained $315,000 in grants for the stabilization project, but needed the $150,000 from the downtown revitalization funds, and would use a $211,689 loan to finish the stabilization. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Chao Tells AASHTO Conference TIGER Grants Coming 'Very Soon'
U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao told state department of transportation executives that her department will award the 2017 round of TIGER infrastructure grants "very soon," and that the 2017 and 2018 INFRA program grants would follow soon afterward.
Chao made the comments Feb. 28 as she gave a luncheon speech at the annual Washington Briefing conference of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.
A video of her entire remarks is available here:
State DOTs and other stakeholders have been looking for the USDOT to announce the TIGER grants. Congress last May appropriated $500 million for those awards, and the DOT took applications through Oct. 16 for them.
The department in the past has distributed TIGER funds to a wide range of transportation projects covering various travel modes.
The separate INFRA program targets projects of regional and national significance and those that improve major freight corridors. The USDOT awarded rural-area and small 2017 INFRA grants last year, but held back most grant funds that would have gone to larger projects and combined them with a 2018 grant round totaling about $1.56 billion. It took applications for those through Nov. 2.
State DOTs have said if they do not receive the funds soon they will not be able to put them to use during the spring construction season.