11.16.07
City's casino hopes fade in Congress
Despite support, bill is removed in House committee
By MIKE CONNELL
Times Herald
Detroit and Nevada interests teamed up Thursday to block the latest effort to win congressional approval for a Port Huron casino.
"You have a number of different factions that are all lined up against the casino," said U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, R-Harrison Township, whose district includes Port Huron.
The House Natural Resources Committee had been scheduled to "mark up" - or endorse - two bills that would have paved the way for casinos in Port Huron and Romulus. At the last moment, both bills were removed from the agenda.
Miller said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., late Wednesday and urged her to block action on the bills.
"I didn't listen to the phone call, but I believe it happened," Miller said.
Reid's office, when contacted by the Times Herald, would neither confirm nor deny the phone call.
"Sen. Reid supports Indian gaming as authorized under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, however he strongly opposes off-reservation gaming," Jon Summers, a spokesman for the senator, said in a statement. "The Bay Mills Indian Community's proposal would put a casino in a location that is 200 miles away from their reservation. Should this bill pass the House, Sen. Reid will oppose it."
Actually, Port Huron is about 350 miles from the Bay Mills reservation in Brimley, a town on Lake Superior.
Casino could be dead
The start of Thursday's committee meeting was delayed by an hour. At
noon, when the session finally got under way, the committee's chairman announced the changes in the agenda.
"I will not call those bills up today but do intend for them to be considered in the relatively near future," said U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va.
The "near future" apparently will be January at the earliest. Rahall also said Thursday's session would be the committee's final business meeting of the year.
What's unclear is whether any realistic hope remains for a Port Huron casino.
Mike Malik, the Detroit developer who has been trying to put a casino in the city for 15 years, did not return phone messages Thursday. It was the opening day of gun-deer season, and friends said they believed Malik was hunting in northern Michigan outside cell-phone range.
Miller said she was uncertain what the next step might be. She said the committee, which last debated the Port Huron and Romulus casino issues nearly 3½ years ago, could schedule another public hearing early next year.
Detroit lawmakers, who did not participate in the June 2004 hearing, complained this week that the bills should not advance until they can make their case.
Granholm lends her support
Even if the bills were to pass the House, their prospects in the Senate would seem poor given Reid's opposition. Five years ago, he singlehandedly blocked a Port Huron casino bill introduced by U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing.
Miller said she believes Reid asked Pelosi to block the measure before it could reach the Senate, thus avoiding an uncomfortable showdown with Stabenow and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit, who announced his support for a Port Huron casino earlier this year.
The proposal got another big lift this week when Gov. Jennifer Granholm came out in support of a modified agreement, which she said could ease unemployment in Port Huron and provide as much as $30 million in annual revenues for the cash-strapped state government.
A new agreement with Granholm also could open the door for moving the casino to a site other than the Edison Inn property, the only location allowed under the agreement made five years ago with former Gov. John Engler. There is considerable sentiment in Port Huron for putting the casino either at Desmond Landing or on the downtown YMCA property between Glenwood Avenue and Beers Street.
Backers had the votes
Another boost came when U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Flint, the co-chairman of the Native American Caucus and the only Michigan lawmaker on the 48-member Natural Resources Committee, said he wouldn't oppose the Romulus and Port Huron bills. He noted that Flint and Monroe are alternative sites for the Romulus casino.
With Kildee on board, the two bills appeared to face clear sailing Thursday.
"We were absolutely certain we had the votes," Miller said, speaking for herself and the bill's Democratic sponsors, Bart Stupak of Menominee and John Dingell of Dearborn. "I had several Republicans lined up, and most of the (committee) Democrats were on board. There was a clear majority."
She said Pelosi also had promised floor time to Dingell and Stupak, meaning the full House could have voted on the bills before Christmas.
"Now that is totally stopped," Miller said.
Kilpatricks lead opponents
Roll Call, a newspaper that covers Capitol Hill, described Thursday's skirmish as "a scuffle ... pitting several of the most senior House Democrats against each other."
U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Detroit, the influential chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus and the mother of Detroit's mayor, reportedly led the opposition.
"The passage of this legislation would undermine two ballot proposals approved by Michigan voters, set a dangerous precedent under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and undermine the authority of the Michigan State Legislature," she told Rahall in a letter co-signed by U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
Her son, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, also wrote Rahall to share his fears that Port Huron and Romulus casinos would harm Detroit's economy.
"Over a decade ago, the people voted to allow three casinos to open in the city of Detroit to spur economic development through job growth and new taxes," the mayor said. "The casinos employ over 7,500 people today, and that number will grow to almost 9,000 when the current hotel/casino construction projects are completed. ... Any expansion of off-reservation gaming will not only compromise the economic strides that we've made, but will also contradict the will and intent of Michigan voters."
MGM spends big money
The Kilpatricks echoed arguments made by MGM Mirage, the casino giant controlled by billionaire Kirk Kerkorian. The corporation is Nevada's largest employer, and it recently invested $800 million in the MGM Grand Casino in Detroit.
Earlier this year, The Associated Press reported MGM had spent $180,000 to lobby against a Port Huron casino. MGM's lobbyists include Kai Anderson, a former deputy chief of staff to Reid.
The Saginaw Chippewa, owners of Michigan's largest and most profitable casino in Mount Pleasant, also fought the Port Huron project. The Saginaw tribe counts Port Huron as part of its ancestral lands.
The Port Huron and Romulus bills don't mention casino gambling. Instead, they seek approval of deals Engler made with two Chippewa tribes shortly before leaving office at the end of 2002.
The Sault and Bay Mills bands, who separated in 1948, both claim title to land at Charlotte Beach on the St. Mary River. They agreed to give up those claims in exchange for reservations in southeastern Michigan.
The Sault, the state's largest tribe with about 31,000 members, hopes to open a casino near Metro Airport in Romulus. The tribe also owns the Greektown Casino in Detroit.
Bay Mills was promised a 15-acre reservation on the Edison Inn property. Malik's company, Blue Water Resorts LLC, has been paying a monthly option on the property.
'A false land claim'
Larry Rosenthal, a Flint native and a consultant for the Saginaw Chippewa, noted the tribal land claims in Charlotte Beach have been rejected in both federal and state courts.
"The legislation is predicated by a false land claim," he said. "They're using it simply to circumvent the 1993 gaming compact for Michigan."
As part of the 1993 compact, Michigan's 12 federally recognized tribes agreed they would not participate in off-reservation gaming. A tribe cannot legally open a casino outside its ancestral lands without approval from the other 11 tribes. That's one reason why skeptics question the legitimacy of a casino proposal in Kimball Township.
Rosenthal criticized the Sault for hypocrisy. When Bay Mills made its deal with Engler in August 2002, the Sault derided the land swap as patently illegal. The tribe then turned around and made its own deal with Engler on Dec. 30, 2002, the day before he left office.
"Even the Sault tribe has opined in the past that a land claim doesn't exist," Rosenthal said.
Levin may be last hope
Supporters of the Port Huron and Romulus casinos insist the proposals are not only legal but essential for two economically struggling communities.
Dingell, the chairman of the House Energy Committee, accused the Kilpatricks and Conyers of "numerous inaccuracies, distortions and outright misrepresentations of fact regarding our legislation and its beneficial impact for the tribes, local communities and the State of Michigan."
Miller expressed disappointment with a Times Herald editorial Thursday, which she described as "incredibly naïve." It blamed House Republicans for blocking past casino bills.
The congresswoman said Democrats, who control both branches of Congress, have been calling the shots. "It is a lot of internal Democratic politics here," she said. "Democrats control both the House and the Senate. Every committee chair is a Democrat. They control what gets on the floor."
She also questioned whether Levin and Stabenow support the casino in deed as well as word. In the five years since she took office, Miller noted she repeatedly has pushed casino bills. In the same period, no legislation has been introduced in the Senate.
"If Carl Levin can't stop Harry Reid, I don't know if it's possible," she said.
City at mercy of others
She also echoed a point made by others - Detroit and Nevada interests are much more concerned about a Romulus casino than a Port Huron casino.
Romulus is about 20 miles from Detroit, and the proposed casino near Metro Airport would be one of the largest in the state. Port Huron is 60 miles from the city, and its casino presumably would compete less with Detroit than with two Ontario provincial casinos across the St. Clair River in Point Edward and Sarnia.
Dick Reynolds of the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters questioned why Port Huron, which has Michigan's highest unemployment rate, is denied the right to compete for a share of a business that already exists in the larger community.
"I think it's very sad that outside interests are dictating to us what we can and cannot have," he said.
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