On Tuesday, Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy signed into law the East Windsor casino bill. The new law approves a Hartford-area casino owned by Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods, the state’s two gaming tribes.
The East Windsor casino’s ownership has earmarked $4.5 million-per-year for 6 nearby communities. The City of Windsor will not see any of the money and the city’s mayor is not happy about it.
In the bill signed into law on Tuesday, the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequot (Foxwoods) tribes agreed to deposit $4.5 million annually into a special fund.
Six nearby cities receive equal payouts from the special fund: Hartford, East Hartford, Windsor Locks, South Windsor, Ellington, and Enfield.
$750,000 a Year for Distressed Cities
Each of those cities receives $750 thousand a year from the special fund, though the city of East Windsor does not see a dime. The money is designed to help the cities deal with the increase in traffic in the area, which requires road maintenance and additional policing.
The six cities were classified by the Connecticut State Legislature as “distressed cities”. Three of the communities border East Windsor directly: Ellington, Enfield, and South Windsor. A fourth community sits across the Connecticut River from East Windsor, but is connected via I-91: Windsor Locks.
The remaining two cities, Hartford and East Hartford, are not adjacent to East Windsor, but are considered distressed due to the increased traffic sure to flow from those communities to the casino. That leaves the City of Windsor.
South Windsor: A Main Route to the Casino
South Windsor Mayor Carolyn Mirek said her city needed the traffic cost relief. Mayor Mirek said Route 5, which runs through the western side of her city, is expected to be a main route to the casino.
Carolyn Mirek said, “They are going to be right next door to us. We will be impacted by this in terms of traffic and we will need to make sure our public safety services are not impacted.
“So if we need to allocate money for road and infrastructure improvements or add more kind of services to deal with the impact of the casino, the funding is a good thing.”
Windsor Overlooked by Special Fund
The City of Windsor did not receive the same consideration, though. Windsor sits across the Connecticut River from East Windsor, much like Windsor Locks. Unlike Windsor Locks, though, it is not connected directly by a highway to East Windsor. For that reason, it was not designated a distressed city.
Windsor Mayor Donald Trinks says his city faces the same potential traffic issues the so-called distressed cities face. Despite that fact, the legislature ignored Windsor, leaving it to repair roads damaged by excess traffic without a new revenues.
Mayor Trinks told the Hartford Courant, “I can’t understand why some towns were included and some weren’t. Without question we’ll see some of the negative spillover.”
David Baram Mystified by Windsor’s Exclusion
Connecticut State Rep. David Baram, whose congressional district includes part of the City of Windsor, said he asked his legislative colleagues why the community was not included in the list of distressed cities.
Rep. Baram said, “I was told it was primarily for towns directly abutting East Windsor that would be negatively affected by increased traffic and public safety resources.”
Brandon McGee on Helping Windsor
State Rep. Brandon McGee, whose district includes parts of Hartford and Windsor, said he expects he and other lawmakers will find a way to redress the oversight at some point. Representative McGee gave no details on how or when that might happen.
State and local governments face serious budget shortfalls, though. In May 2017, Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin asked for $40 million from the state to keep his city out of bankruptcy. Connecticut has an $18 billion General Fund, but two-thirds of that money goes to fixed costs, including programs like Medicaid. Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy faces a budget shortfall expected to be between $2.3 billion and $2.8 billion.
The surrounding cities expect certain indirect benefits from the East Windsor casino. The development will create over a thousand construction jobs and over a thousand permanent casino jobs. Workers are going to be residents of all the local communities, so cities should receive benefits in a better local jobs market.
Also, the Foxwoods and Mohegan tribes conducted research which suggested that the East Windsor casino will save up to 9,300 jobs statewide. Though that research might be dubious to a certain degree, the satellite casino certainly will save some jobs.
