Tuesday, April 8, 2003 | 9:50 a.m.
MADISON, Wis. -- The Forest County Potawatomi plans to offer more slot machines at its Milwaukee casino within weeks as it moves ahead with plans to double its size after federal officials approved its amended compact, a tribe official said Monday.
Tribal Attorney General Jeff Crawford said the tribe would proceed with plans for a $120 million investment in the casino even though lawmakers have filed a suit with the Wisconsin Supreme Court seeking to nullify the compact the Bureau of Indian Affairs approved Sunday.
The compact, negotiated by Gov. Jim Doyle, allows the tribe to offer new games such as craps and roulette and removes some restrictions on its casinos, including the number of slot machines it can offer. In return, the tribe expects to pay the state an estimated $340 million over the next 10 years.
Despite federal approval of the compact, lawmakers still want the Supreme Court to decide several constitutional issues they've raised, said Senate Majority Leader Mary Panzer, R-West Bend.
Crawford said the tribe felt it was being picked on by lawmakers, who have twice passed bills trying to give themselves oversight of the compacts only to have them vetoed by Doyle.
Republicans had also asked the BIA to delay its decision, and several wrote President Bush asking him to reject the compact.
"We have done everything in according with state law and have negotiated in good faith with the governor and have federal approval and yet we still feel as though we're being attacked," Crawford said.
The compact has been at the center of an ongoing dispute between the Democratic governor and Republicans who control the Legislature.
Doyle said Monday the state is close to finalizing compacts with the other 10 tribes that run casinos in Wisconsin, saying basic agreements were in place with them all. He was unsure when those new compacts would be signed.
He reiterated his call for lawmakers to stop meddling in compact negotiations and focus on the state's $3.2 billion budget shortfall. He is counting on an additional $237 million from the tribes to help balance the budget.
He also criticized them for authorizing up to $62,500 in taxpayer money to cover legal expenses associated with the lawsuit they filed last week.
"If every time we have a disagreement in the Legislature, we end up in court paying lawyers a lot of money, I don't think that's good for the state of Wisconsin," Doyle said.
But Panzer said Doyle had overstepped his authority and lawmakers felt an obligation to their constituents to ask the state Supreme Court to intervene.
She said the compact had the potential to affect budgets for years to come because it has no expiration date; current compacts expire after five years.
"It spans not just the relationship between this governor, this Legislature and this budget but every governor, every Legislature and every budget," Panzer said.
The compact approved by BIA allows the state or the tribe to offer amendments to the compact to enhance regulation of gaming every five years. It also allows both sides to propose amendments to any portion of the agreement every 25 years.
BIA allowed the compact to take effect by not actively approving or voiding it by Sunday's deadline, but it asked for two revisions first.
The tribe and state agreed to remove a provision that would have prevented another tribal casino within 50 miles of the Potawatomi Bingo Casino in Milwaukee.
They also dropped a provision allowing the tribe to operate any game played within 75 miles of the Wisconsin border. In its place, they added a provision specifying that the tribe will be allowed to offer games like craps, roulette, poker, Let It Ride, Casino Stud and Casino War.
The compact also allows the tribe to offer simulcasting. But Crawford said the tribe had no plans to include that in its expansion because it wants to protect jobs at the Dairyland Greyhound Park in Kenosha.
Roy Berger, Dairyland's executive vice president, said the BIA's decision leaves the track at a disadvantage because it cannot offer the same options to gamblers as the Potawatomi.
"We can always keep our fingers crossed that there's some legislative relief in the offering," he said.
archive
