Mississippi casino country places a new bet — on an Amazon-backed wind farm

In response to questions, Terrance Unrein, senior development director for AES, said that tax incentives are common for clean energy projects and that the Tunica wind farm is expected to bring “tens of millions of dollars to the taxing districts over the life of the project.”

Charles Finkley Jr., the president and CEO of the Tunica County Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development, said incentives are worthwhile to help attract businesses.

“We definitely want to be competitive in order to successfully recruit these types of projects into our community,” he said.

Finkley said the land where the wind farm sits would have brought in about $20,000 in property taxes over the next three decades, a fraction of the at least $60 million in taxes the county expects to receive.

Residents here know what it means to bring in big business; they’re also intimately familiar with what happens when those businesses’ promises begin to fade.

Tunica County was once known as one of the poorest counties in the country, until the arrival of casinos in the early 1990s helped transform it into the busiest gambling hub in the Deep South.

Gaming brought hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue to a county that has been beleaguered by poor housing conditions and underperforming public schools. But the casino industry has taken a hit over the years, because of increased competition from states like Arkansas. At least three casinos have closed since 2014. 

During the pandemic, Dwight Mosley, who pastors a church in neighboring DeSoto County, helped run a drive-thru food pantry at an arena in Tunica County where long lines of cars showed how many families were overwhelmed.

Those dramatic sights are gone now, Mosley said, but a need for support remains.  

“You’re looking at people making sacrifices,” he said.

Hawkins, the retired county road manager, hears echoes of the county’s historical problems in its issues today with education, health care access and rundown homes that look “the same way now as they did when the casinos first got here.”