In addition to the many, many phone calls being made by the agents of the casino backers, we were sent a mailing that was typical of the process thus far.

It was long on promises, short on details, and didn't match up with reality or the agreement that is on the table.

• Resort Casino will provide 7 million per year

  Rebuttal: And little more. In exchange we will incur millions more dollars in cost for police, fire emergency, schools, and every other town department. West Warwick RI - a community similar in size to Middleboro, negotiated a deal that would have given more than 20 million dollars a year tied to slot revenues. This deal is worth less than half of that.

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• The 7 million dollar payment is twice as much tax as all other commercial properties

  Rebuttal: For good reason - it will have a much larger impact.

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• Resort Casino will provide thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of guaranteed well-paying permanent jobs for Middleboro residents.

  Rebuttal: There will be a lot of temporary construction jobs. There is nothing in the agreement that "guarantees" that the jobs will be well-paying and only a "good faith" promise to give Middleoboro residents some preference after tribal members. Do you notice how it is worded "hundreds of well-paying permanent jobs". That implies that the rest of the 10,000 jobs are going to be low paying - which would be consistent with other similar facilities.

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• The Resort Casino will pay millions of dollars in traffic improvements to local roads including Route 44 and the Rotary.

  Rebuttal: The agreement says nothing about "local roads". The Tribe will pay for improvements to route 44 that will benefit the Casino. These improvements are to benefit the casino - not the people of Middleboro. Rt. 44 will become a place to be avoided by anyone who is not going to the casino - limiting our access to Plymouth and any other Rt. 44 destination town.

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• The Resort Casino's financial contributions to Middleboro will include much needed funding for police and fire as well as for public schools to reduce class size and improve education overall.

  Rebuttal: The agreement will not provide enough money to pay for the casino impacts, let alone improvements to any existing department. We will at best break even and very likely wind up losing money.

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• The Resort Casino will bring improvements to Town's water, sewer, electric, and gas and make Middleboro eligible to join witht he Tribe to obtain a number of Government grants.

  Rebuttal: We don't need infrastructure improvements - the casino does. Any upgrades needed by our systems due to natural growth or age, can be handled the way every other town handles them.

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• The Tribe will be a large contributor to local community organizations and charities.

  Rebuttal: That's a possibility but is not specified in any agreements. Any large business is expected to do their social responsibility for the community. That's not a benefit - it's expected behavior.

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• Annual payments from the Resort Casino will reduce the growing local budget deficit in the first year of casino operation and greatly relieve pressues for more property tax increase in future years.

  Rebuttal: For that to be true, the Tribe would have to pay us enough money for offsetting and exceeding the cost of hosting the casino. The deal on the table will not do that. This is an empty promise with not facts, data, or financial data to back up the claim.

Rebuttal: When these "endorsements" were made, the town had not yet done any significant impact assessments leading one to wonder on what basis the endorsements were made. It is fact that casinos bring gambling addiction. Gambling addiction has the same social negatives as any other addiction - crime, bankrupcies, divorces, child abuse, robbery, rape, and other violent crimes.

Is this what these agencies are endorsing? Now ask yourself if you endorse it.

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