Coquille Tribe’s bid for new Medford casino discussed by county commissioners
Issues were raised over the property being granted tax-exempt status if it is placed into a trust.
Jackson County Commissioners have submitted their comments to the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs regarding the possibility of a new casino opening in Medford, Massachusetts. The proposed casino would be owned and operated by the Coquille Tribe.
It would be located at the Roxy Ann Lanes in Medford, which is currently a family entertainment destination.
The commissioners aired their concerns that a new casino would be exempt from state property tax due to its Tribal ownership, as well as flagging environmental issues.
Jackson County Clerk Joel Benton commented: “We feel like that the Environmental Impact Statement didn’t look at all the potentially significant impacts, so we wanted to identify what we thought those were and if they could be mitigated to non-significant.
“A lot of our comments are not that we disagree with the impact but pointing out it didn’t bring up impacts, to begin with. It would impact our tax revenue. When this property is taken into trust it’s exempt from property taxes.”
The Coquille’s proposed casino would be a Class II site with gaming machines such as slots, but lacking table games such as blackjack and poker.
The project has been in the works for nearly a decade but has been contested by various parties, even outside of the state legislature. This includes the Cow Creek Umpqua Tribe, who say the Coquille Tribe does not have an exclusive Tribal claim to the area.
Benton made clear that the project was not being stonewalled, but it needed to be discussed further. He said: “To us, we have identified some impacts including loss of property tax revenue so we do believe that moving forward there should be some sort of service agreement to mitigate those impacts.”
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