Mashantucket Pequot Nation

Mashantucket Pequot Slot Tax Decision Expected Soon

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here are two news articles on the question. The first (here) details the Town of Ledyard’s crusade to collect taxes on the non-Indian owners of the slot machines used at Foxwoods. An excerpt:

Other grievances, not surprisingly, involve money – particularly the sovereign nation’s deal to pay the state a quarter of its slot machine revenues instead of local taxes on reservation property in the northeastern corner of Ledyard.

Though the town grudgingly concedes it can’t collect these revenues, it has for years been trying to levy taxes on personal property owned by non-Indians on reservation lands – specifically slot machines that a New Jersey company leases to the tribe.

Six years ago the tribe and Atlantic City Coin & Slot Service sued Ledyard to block these taxes, claiming such municipal action disregards well-established principles of federal Indian law and interferes with the tribe’s gaming operations, self-determination and sovereign immunity.

So far, the town has spent $900,000 fighting the litigation – a whopping sum that could have been used to hire teachers, repave miles of roads or buy thousands of new library books.

The second (here) includes a quote on the Indian law implications of the case:

Bethany Berger, a professor of Indian law at the University of Connecticut School of Law, said that taxation of non-Indians and their property on tribal lands is complicated. Berger, co-author and member of the editorial board of Felix S. Cohen’s Handbook of Federal Indian Law, the pre-eminent treatise in the field, does not think Ledyard’s case is a strong one.

“The machines are leased by the tribe as part of this federally regulated business that the tribe has a big interest in,” she said, adding that the interests of the state of Connecticut in the matter may not be as strong as Ledyard officials hope.

“With respect to state interest, it can’t just be revenue-raising interest,” Berger said. “Ledyard wants to make money by taxing the machines, and that’s not the kind of interest that’s really important. The federal interest is very strong because of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and the tribal interest is also strong because this is the business that provides most of the tribe’s revenue.”

Connecticut Trial Court Quashes Subpoena of Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Representatives

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the order in Davis v. Senibaldi (Conn. Sup. Ct.):

Crowder Subpoena Memo

The tribes and tribal reps are third parties to a dram shop action, and the court held that sovereign immunity required the quashing on the subpoena.

Mashantucket Pequot (Apparently) Will End Per Capita Payments to Members under Age 55

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

News article here. An excerpt:

Anticipating the end of monthly distributions of gaming profits to tribal members, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council late last year enacted a law to protect the tribe’s older, needy members.

The law provides for up to $50,000 a year in financial assistance for “elders,” who are defined for the purposes of the law as those 60 and older as well as those who were at least 55 as of Dec. 31, 2010. The assistance was to begin Jan. 1, the law states.

It’s estimated that about 80 members of the 850-member tribe are at least 55 years old.

Under the new law, elders are eligible to receive annual assistance equal to a “standard of need,” with the amount of the assistance reduced by “offset income” the elder receives in excess of $25,000.

 

Mashantucket Pequot Gay-Friendly Employee Policies Announced

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From Indianz:

The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation of Connecticut is doing its part to make its casinos friendly to lesbian, gay bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) employees.

The tribe has implemented an equal employment policy for LGBT workers and same-sex couples are also eligible for medical benefits. The tribe also added LGBT businesses to its list of minority-owned businesses.

“Our Pequot culture has endured a lot of discrimination over the centuries so we understand the importance of being able to embrace all the freedoms” said tribal spokesperson Lori Potter, The New London Day reported.

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NPR on Mashantucket Pequot Labor Deal

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From NPR:

American Indian casinos are big business in the United States, with an estimated 280,000 people employed across more than 400 sites.

That huge workforce is largely unorganized. Only a few such casinos recognize union contracts. Among them is North America’s largest gaming center, Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut.

Its dealers recently struck a deal after a lengthy dispute with the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe. What makes this agreement different is that it was brokered under tribal law.

Unionizing Casinos

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Banishments at Mashantucket Pequot

Matthew L.M. Fletcher1 Comment

From local news:

In banishing Christopher Pearson, the former tribal official facing sentencing on federal wire-fraud charges, the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Elders Council meted out an ancient form of punishment employed by Indian tribes across the country.

Within weeks of his Nov. 19 conviction in U.S. District Court in Hartford, Pearson was ordered off the Mashantucket reservation, where he owns a home, and to surrender his tribal badge, having “forfeited all rights and privileges of Tribal membership with the exception of services provided by Tribal Health Services.”

The elders council also directed the tribe’s finance department to cut off Pearson’s monthly “incentive” payments — the distributions of Foxwoods Resort Casino revenue that all tribal members in good standing receive.

While the tribe would provide no information about banishments, it’s believed that their frequency has increased since the tribe’s constitution and by-laws granted the elders council “the authority and responsibility” to impose them.

Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council resolutions show that 12 people were banished by the tribal council prior to the establishment of the elders council in 1996. Currently, several people are banished each year, maybe more, according to Thomas Weissmuller, chief judge of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Court. Continue reading →

Foxwoods Debt News

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the Hartford Courant:

The deeply indebted owners of Foxwoods Resort Casino said Monday that they have reached a deal with creditors that appears to offer some temporary relief.

The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council issued a statement saying that it “has entered into a forbearance agreement with its senior lenders” that extends through Jan. 20.

The Tribe did not say how much debt the forbearance applies to or offer any other terms, and said it would not comment further until discussions with creditors are finished.

The tribe, which does not publicly disclose its finances, has reportedly been trying to renegotiate more than $2.3 billion of debt, a situation that has led credit rating agencies to downgrade the tribe’s creditworthiness.

In its statement, the tribe said it “remains committed to working with its lenders to reach consensual resolutions.”

Last month the Pequots placed Michael Thomas, Chair of the Tribal Council, on administrative leave “pending the outcome of an internal review.” Citing a memo from the six other council members to Thomas, The New London Day has reported the council ousted Thomas because he issued a letter Aug. 19 to the tribal membership in which he described his own plan and stated his own opinions about the financial crisis.

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Mohegan Tribe Per Caps under Scrutiny by Lenders

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the Day:

Times were flush when the Mohegans sought the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs’ approval of the tribe’s plan for distributing gaming revenues.

After ensuring that the plan provided adequate funding for tribal government and economic development, among other things, the deputy commissioner of Indian Affairs signed off on the plan on July 16, 2001. It calls for 40 to 50 percent of the tribe’s net gaming revenues from Mohegan Sun to be distributed to the tribe’s adult members on a quarterly basis.

More recently, on Jan. 4, 2008, the office of the secretary of the Department of the Interior approved a Gaming Revenue Allocation Plan submitted by the Mashantucket Pequots. Under the plan, up to 30 percent of the net gaming revenues generated by Foxwoods Resort Casino (including MGM Grand at Foxwoods, which opened in May 2008) are to be distributed to tribal adults “to help advance their personal health, safety and welfare.”

The plans, which the BIA requires of tribes that choose to make so-called per capita payments to members, have come under scrutiny in recent weeks, particularly in the case of the Mashantucket Pequots, who are seeking to restructure a debt load of more than $2 billion. Gaming industry analysts and the Mashantuckets’ creditors are more interested than ever in how the tribe distributes its gaming revenue.

The creditors were alarmed in late August when Mashantucket Chairman Michael Thomas, addressing tribal members about the “dire financial times” facing the tribe, vowed to protect funding for tribal government and per capita “incentive” payments from further cuts. The pledge, which many within and without Indian Country considered irresponsible, cost Thomas his chairmanship. Placed on administrative leave and facing a tribal council vote to expel him from the council, Thomas announced he would not seek re-election Nov. 1.
“He’s not that relevant at the moment,” Jane Pedreira, a gaming analyst with Rye, N.Y.-based Clear Sights Research, said last week.

With Thomas out of the picture, the investment world is keen to learn about the tribe’s funding of its tribal operations and the payouts its members receive. If they’re having trouble finding such information, “it’s not for our lack of looking,” one investor said.

Plans’ percentage breakdowns

Copies of the revenue-allocation plans, which The Day obtained from the BIA through a federal Freedom of Information Act request, detail the percentage breakdown of the tribes’ allocation of their net gaming revenues. The Mohegans’ 10-page plan specifies that 30 to 40 percent of the tribe’s revenue is to be dedicated to tribal-government operations and programs, including investments and education; 5 to 15 percent to the general welfare of tribal members, including investments, health, housing, social services and youth services programs; and 10 to 20 percent to economic development, both gaming and non-gaming related. Continue reading →

Mashantucket Pequot Debt Restructuring Affects All Indian Gaming Operations

Matthew L.M. Fletcher
From Gambling Compliance (via Pechanga):
Any reassurance by the Mashantucket Pequot Gaming Authority that it will honour its debt obligations could lend much needed legitimacy across the tribal gaming sector and would set a good example for other indebted tribal gaming operators, according to analysts at rating agency Moody’s.

The Mashantucket Pequot’s decision in late August to hire a financial advisor heightened fears that the operator behind the Foxwood’s Casino in Connecticut might be considering a default on its $1.5bn debt load. The move saw both Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s downgrade the tribe’s rating by three notches.

Keith Foley, senior vice president of debt research at Moody’s, said it was the lack of information from the tribe about its actions that was the main cause for the “pretty severe” downgrade.

“The two primary reasons for that were, one, the announcement was very brief which raised a lot of uncertainty in terms of what the options are or what they were thinking. In addition, the statement that they hired a financial advisor, particularly given some of the challenges in the Connecticut gaming market, suggested to us that there is always the possibility that an option could be chosen that could lead to some impairment to creditors.”

However, Foley was keen to stress that a “favourable outcome” might still be possible, and that this could have positive ramifications far beyond the confines of the Mashantucket’s own debt dilemma. “One of the things I would like to point out is that a key implication from this could be that if the Mashantucket tribe truly demonstrates that it is taking every possible step to honour its debt service obligations and they maintain strong corporate governance standards, it could set a very good example for other tribes and increase the legitimacy of lending to the Native American sector in general.”

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Foxwoods Settles $2.9 Million Personal Injury Claim

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From ICT:

LEDYARD, Conn. – A Massachusetts man who lost his leg in an accident at Foxwoods Resort Casino in 2006 received a $2.9 million award in what may be the largest personal injury claim ever negotiated in a tribal court.

Richard Murch, 69, of Tewksbury, Mass., and the Mashantucket Pequot Gaming Enterprise agreed to settle the claim minutes before a trial was to begin in Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Court in early August.

MPGE is the business arm of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, which owns Foxwoods Resort Casino in southeastern Connecticut. Tribal officials said it was their largest settlement.

New London attorney M. John Strafaci, who represented Murch, said it may be the largest settlement in any tribal court.

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