Delusional Mike Malik blames Abramoff for House defeat of his Port Huron casino scheme

6.26.08

All bets are off
Bill to bring casino to Port Huron falls in House

By MIKE CONNELL

Corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff may be locked in a prison cell, but he still received credit Wednesday for the crushing defeat of the Port Huron and Romulus casino bills.

The House rejected the combined measures by a surprisingly lopsided vote of 298 to 121.

Casino developer Mike Malik blamed the setback on "the actions of people who hired Abramoff to stop us originally and who have continued to expand on Abramoff's tactics. They were successful. They did it in ways that someone should investigate."

Abramoff, a former lobbyist who was at the center of a massive Washington corruption scandal, helped block earlier Port Huron bills on behalf of the Saginaw Chippewa, who paid him more than $14million. He now is serving a 70-month term in federal prison.

Uncertain future

Malik, a former Algonac councilman, has worked closely with Detroit businesswoman Marian Ilitch on casino developments. He has been trying to open a casino in Port Huron for more than 15 years.

The Saginaw Chippewa and casino giant MGM Mirage have spent freely to block him. The Saginaw Chippewa operate the state's largest casino in Mount Pleasant, while Malik said MGM's Grand Detroit casino hotel earned a record $50 million last month alone.

"They're not going to let their prized golden goose get hurt," he said. "They're drinking champagne at MGM tonight while the people in Port Huron cannot even afford to drink a pop."

The Port Huron bill would have paved the way for the Bay Mills Chippewa of the Upper Peninsula to open a casino at either Desmond Landing or the Thomas Edison Inn.

"I don't know where we go from here," said Malik, who was hired by Bay Mills to shepherd the project. "The other side has outright lied at every turn. ... It's a great loss to the state of Michigan and the city of Port Huron. There are and were great plans to hire thousands of people. Everybody should be outraged."

Tomion: 'I feel naïve'

City Manager Karl Tomion shared Malik's sense of outrage and disappointment.

"I have to confess I just didn't see this coming," he said. "I knew there were Detroit and Nevada interests that were spending millions of dollars on false information, but I thought our cause was so just we would prevail. I feel naïve."

Detroit's political leaders, including embattled Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his mother, Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick, led the fight against Port Huron.

Tomion expressed dismay with their efforts, noting Port Huron and St. Clair County voters overwhelmingly supported a statewide referendum 15 years ago that let Detroit compete with a casino across the border in Windsor. Port Huron was looking for a similar opportunity to compete with two gaming facilities across the river in Point Edward and Sarnia.

"For them to work so hard against us is very disappointing when we're in exactly the same position as they were," Tomion said. "I'm disappointed in our political process. Whatever happened to doing what is right?"

Malik echoed that criticism. "The city of Detroit believes they are the only group in the state that deserves to have everything their way. They believe all benefits should be their benefits, and that all development should be their development. They always want help, but they never offer help."

He also singled out Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, as leading behind-the-scenes effort to defeat the bills.

"Mike Rogers worked harder against our cause than anyone else," he said. "Why does Mike Rogers from Brighton and East Lansing care so much about Port Huron? Why is he so aligned to MGM and Ietan (a lobbying firm)? He is the biggest hypocrite on Capitol Hill."

Miller fights for city

Malik and Tomion praised Rep. Candice Miller for her staunch support of the casino effort.

"I think it's important to note how hard Candice Miller and her staff worked," Tomion said. "They have been with us every step of the way."

In the floor debate, Miller gave an eloquent 8½-minute speech in which she addressed many of the opposition's arguments.

"I think it's important to note these bills are supported by every elected official who represents the city of Port Huron," she said, listing herself, both U.S. senators, the past two governors, the legislative delegation, the county board and the city council.

City voters gave their blessing, she noted, as did civic groups, labor unions, educational leaders and "every law enforcement official" in the county, including the sheriff, the prosecutor and police chiefs.

In a passionate appeal, she said "our beautiful state" has the nation's highest unemployment rate, lowest income growth, highest foreclosure rate and highest exodus of young people. Port Huron, she noted, has a jobless rate of 14% to 16%, making it one of the bleakest spots in North America for job-seekers.

She pointed to a photograph of Point Edward's casino and noted it was only 282 yards across the river from Port Huron. "And if you were a very good golfer, maybe not me, but a good golfer could hit a golf ball and hit that Canadian casino facility right now where 80% of the revenues comes from America," she said. "Those dollars should be spent in an American casino to create American jobs."

Big money prevails

Dick Cummings, president of the Michigan Machinists union and a leader of casino efforts, said he believed the floor debate was won convincingly by Miller and others who spoke in favor of the bills, including Nick Rahall, D-W.Va.; Don Young, R-Alaska; Bart Stupak, D-Menominee; Dale Kildee, D-Flint; and John Dingell, D-Dearborn.

"If you truly watched the debate, our side was above board and honest," he said. "It's pretty obvious that the people down there in Congress went with the big money and don't care much about Hometown U.S.A."

Cummings expressed surprise the margin of defeat was so large -- 177 votes.

"I was cautiously optimistic because we had the right arguments on our side," he said. "It was the difference between right and wrong, and wrong won."

Cliff Schrader, a Times Herald columnist and a member of the Thomas Edison Inn Casino Advisory Committee, said it seemed clear House members had made up their minds before the debate even began.

"It's clear this community has been tossed under the bus by Washington," he said. "I think it's over. It's very disheartening."

City can't surrender

Mayor Brian Moeller shared the disappointment of other local leaders, but said the community cannot surrender.

"We need to have something that's a major draw, whether it's a casino or something else," he said. "Tourism is our hope for the future, especially with the price of gas what it is. People from the metropolitan area are going to be looking for shorter trips. They won't be going to Mackinaw City as often as they used to. We have to have something major to draw them here, whether it's a water park, a large aquarium or something else."

He suggested the city might explore possibilities such as reconstructing Fort St. Joseph, built by the French in 1686, or Fort Gratiot, built as an American frontier post during the War of 1812.

"We have a beautiful river and lake," he said. "We have great sporting opportunities with the fishing and boating. If we can find one thing we can cash in on, I think people will come. It would seem we've hit a dead end as far as the casino goes, but we need to keep looking."

Foes of the Port Huron Casino?

1.27.08

Casino foes are well-heeled

Saginaw Chippewa
The Saginaw Chippewa casino at Mount Pleasant is the largest and most profitable gaming facility in Michigan, and a casino in Port Huron would offer potential competition.

The tribe also accuses the Bay Mills Chippewa of "reservation shopping" on its ancestral lands. The Saginaw tribe's membership includes descendants of the Blackwater River band, which had a 1,287-acre reservation from 1807 to 1836 in what is now Port Huron. Bay Mills is based on the shores of Lake Superior.

The Saginaw tribe has spent liberally to block a Port Huron casino, including more than $14 million to Jack Abramoff, the disgraced Republican lobbyist who is serving a seven-year term in federal prison. One of his major assignments was fighting the Port Huron casino on Capitol Hill.

Other Indian Tribes
At least nine of Michigan's 12 federally recognized tribes are opposed to the Port Huron casino.

George Bennett, a member of the Grand Traverse band's tribal council, said the legitimacy of the Charlotte Beach land claims has never been upheld in court despite state and federal cases. In testimony at a 2004 congressional hearing, he also described the Engler-Bay Mills deal as an end run around the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.

He also argued that the deal circumvents a 15-year-old compact that prohibits an off-reservation casino unless all 12 tribes sign off on it. "The Michigan tribes pledged not to engage in a form of economic warfare that would ultimately injure all of them," he testified. "They promised not to engage in an endless game of attempting to leapfrog over one another in moving closer to major population centers while cutting off revenues to their less aggressive brethren."

Ietan Consulting Group
Specializing in Indian law and lobbying, Ietan represents 30 tribes including the Saginaw Chippewa. Its co-founders are Wilson Pipestem, a Stanford Law graduate and member of the Otoe-Missouria tribe of Oklahoma, and Larry Rosenthal, a Flint native who worked for more than 11 years as an aide to U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Flint.

While on Kildee's staff, Rosenthal was an architect of the Congressional Native American Caucus, a bipartisan group that includes 99 of the House of Representatives's 435 members.

Ietan's lobbying team also includes Aurene Martin, a member of the Wisconsin Oneida tribe and formerly a high-ranking official with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She testified on the agency's behalf at congressional hearings on the Port Huron casino in 2002 and 2004. In both instances, she explained why the department could not support the project.

MGM Mirage
With annual revenues in excess of $7 billion, the Las Vegas-based corporation is Nevada's biggest employer and one of the world's most profitable gaming companies. Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian and his Tracinda Corp. are the majority owners.

The corporation has invested more than $800 million in MGM Grand Detroit, the most profitable of Detroit's three casinos. MGM views Port Huron as potential competition and spent $180,000 last year to lobby against it. Its lobbyists include Kai Anderson, former deputy chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

The Verifiable Truth
The Verifiable Truth, a 14-month-old Web site, is relentless in its criticism of casino developers Mike Malik and Marian Ilitch.

Aides to Malik said they suspect the site is the work of lobbying firms and wealthy Indian tribes that wish to block potential competition from poorer tribes. They suggested the site is too professionally done and is privy to too much insider information to be the work of an unpaid grassroots group.

In an e-mail, Web site spokesman Frank Lee wrote: "There are no lobbying firms associated with TVT. TVT has not received funding from any tribe. The Ilitch/Malik machine will say anything in order to create a boogeyman to blame for its own circumstances."

Lee also described The Verifiable Truth as "a collection of citizen volunteers from around the country who have seen the Ilitch/Malik machine at work and who wish to ensure that the public has all the information that the Ilitch/Malik machine fails to disclose, share or effectively supresses."

It's difficult to ascertain the truth. Frank Lee apparently is an pseudonym, and the people who run the site have not revealed their real names or affiliations.

City of Detroit
For the past five years, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has been an implacable opponent of the Port Huron proposal. In a November letter to the House Natural Resources Committee, he noted casino gambling has generated about 9,000 jobs in Detroit.

"These jobs meet the original goal that the people of the State of Michigan endorsed when the casinos were approved (in 1994) - economic self-sufficiency for Detroit," he wrote. "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."

Kilpatrick reportedly has been promised the opening spot during testimony Feb. 6 when the committee expects to vote on a bill that would pave the way for a Port Huron casino to open as early as 2009. Kilpatrick is facing a perjury investigation, and it's unknown if his growing troubles will affect his plans to testify before Congress.

Congressional Opposition
In the past six years, several Port Huron casino bills have appeared in the House while only one has been introduced in the Senate. The latter was blocked in 2002 by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., now the Senate majority leader and arguably the most powerful individual on Capitol Hill. Nevada's three House members also oppose Port Huron.

Detroit's two representatives, John Conyers and Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, are fierce opponents. Kilpatrick is the mayor's mother and chairwoman of the influential Congressional Black Caucus. In November, she succeeded in delaying a scheduled vote on the Port Huron project.

Other opponents include former Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, an Abramoff friend who single-handedly spiked a Port Huron bill in 2005, and Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, who questions the morality of casino gambling. Michigan's congressional delegation includes 15 House members - nine Republicans and six Democrats. Most either oppose the Port Huron casino or are lukewarm to it.

A key player is Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Flint, who has taken a neutral position on the latest Port Huron bill. Kildee is co-chairman of the Congressional Native American Caucus and a long-time ally of the Saginaw Chippewa. His neutrality is a switch from his past opposition.

- Compiled by Mike Connell

Port Huron casino fight turns fierce, ugly

1.27.08

Casino fight turns fierce, ugly
Officials, lawyers deny conflicts of interest in battle

By MIKE CONNELL
Times Herald

In 10 days, a congressional committee is expected to vote on legislation meant to clear the path for a tribal casino in Port Huron.

The hearing, scheduled for Feb. 6 before the House Natural Resources Committee, is the latest battleground in a prolonged fight where the stakes - potentially hundreds of millions of dollars - are incredibly high, and where the behind-the-scenes brawling can seem incredibly vicious.

As an illustration of the metaphorical knife fighting, the case of Aurene Martin is instructive.

A member of the Wisconsin Oneida tribe, she majored in history, culture and Italian at universities in Madison, Wis., and Bologna, Italy. She returned home, earned a law degree in Madison in 1993 and then went to work in the public sector for a decade.

Friends and colleagues describe her as a soft-spoken intellectual, a person of the highest ethics and integrity. Last year, her peers voted her to a list of the nation's leading experts on Indian law.

“She’s a genuinely nice person, too,” added Wilson Pipestem, a co-founder of Ietan Consulting, the lobbying firm where Martin now works.


Feeling blindsided
Compare this person to the one described by an ex-mayor of Port Huron and a local labor leader, who remember feeling ambushed by Martin at a 2004 congressional hearing on the proposed casino.

“We were under the impression that she was going to speak in favor of the Port Huron casino. Definitely,” said B. Mark Neal, the former mayor.

Richard Cummings, president of the Michigan Machinists and a founding member of the Thomas Edison Casino Advisory Committee, said he also expected an Interior Department endorsement.

“I just thought it was a foregone conclusion, dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s,” he recalled.

Martin, then the principal deputy assistant secretary for Indian affairs, thanked the Natural Resources Committee for inviting her to testify and then said, “As discussed in our written testimony, the department is not currently able to support the bills as they are written.”

Neal and Cummings remember listening with astonishment as Martin offered a litany of objections to proposed casinos in Port Huron and Romulus.

“I remember walking out of there wondering, ‘Where did that come from?’” Neal said.

Staying consistent
A central question is whether Cummings and Neal, who had been invited to the 2004 hearing to testify in support of the casino, had been misled by lobbyists on their side of the battlelines.

Larry Rosenthal, the other co-founder of Ietan Consulting, said the Interior Department has been consistent in its objections to the Port Huron proposal. He said it’s preposterous to think the Bureau of Indian Affairs, an agency within the Interior Department, was ready to endorse the casino.

“Who told them Interior would support it?” he asked. “Who is this unnamed person?”

In fact, Martin’s testimony in 2004 echoed many of the comments she had made two years earlier while testifying at a similar hearing before a Senate committee.

In a telephone interview, Martin said she does not question the Port Huron men’s memories or sincerity, but she also said they were wrong. Interior Department officials did not support the casino, she said, and her testimony merely reflected the position of her colleagues at the agency.

“I understand they felt blindsided,” she said of Cummings and Neal. “People can take things from conversations that they want to take. That’s one thing. Or they can be spun by their own people. … I don’t know what happened there. I’m not sure why they thought they were going to get a positive report.”

Inside information
Jeff Parker, the leader of the Bay Mills Indian Community, also testified at the 2004 hearing. His tribe and its 1,300 members would own the Port Huron casino if Congress approves its agreement with the state of Michigan.

Martin now works as a registered lobbyist for the Saginaw Chippewa, a rival tribe that has spent freely, including $14 million to disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, on political efforts such as its quest to block a Port Huron casino.

“She had access to all the inside information that we shared with the (Bureau of Indian Affairs),” Parker said of Martin.

That might appear to pose an ethical dilemma, but Interior Department officials who reviewed the matter last week at the Times Herald’s request said Martin did nothing wrong.

“What I can tell you is there is an exemption from any post-employment restrictions for anyone who is working for a federally recognized tribe,” said Tina Kreisher, director of communications for the Interior Department. “No recusal was needed. … There was no need for any kind of waiver since she is working for a federally recognized tribe.”

In short, Martin violated no agency rules. She broke no federal laws.

Inquiry clears staff
Three months after the 2004 hearing, Martin resigned from the agency amid another controversy.

Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell and Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., sharply criticized her decision to acknowledge the Schaghticoke band as a federally recognized tribe.

According to Indianz.com, a Web site that covers Indian-related issues, Connecticut officials feared that Frederick DeLuca, co-founder of the Subway restaurant chain, and other wealthy investors seeking a casino had asked Martin to bend the rules.

Earl Devaney, the Interior Department’s inspector general and a Bush administration appointee, investigated the matter. He found no evidence of wrongdoing by Martin or anyone else at the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

“Although the Schaghticoke recognition decision was highly controversial, we found that (Martin and her colleagues) conducted themselves in keeping with the requirements of the administrative process," he concluded.

Memo gets leaked
A year later, Martin found herself back in the headlines as the result of an internal memorandum sent to the Saginaw tribe on Sept. 27, 2005.

At the time, Martin worked as an Indian law specialist for Holland & Knight, one of the world's 15 largest law firms. She co-wrote the memo with Rosenthal, the Ietan lobbyist. They detailed plans for the tribe to distribute more than $300,000 in political donations in the upcoming year.

While such memos are not unusual in Washington, they rarely become public. This one did. Supporters of a maverick Saginaw Chippewa leader posted the memo on a Web site, where it was picked up by The Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress.

The long list of recommended contributions included $5,000 to Rep. Charles Taylor, R-N.C., who Martin and Rosenthal described as "helpful" on blocking casinos in Romulus and Port Huron, and $2,000 to Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton, who "has been very helpful" on the same front.

Martin later would leave Holland & Knight to join Rosenthal at Ietan.

Bar rules are strict
Parker's concern about Martin having access to confidential information that he said Bay Mills shared with the Bureau of Indian Affairs raises another ethical question: Is it proper for her to lobby for the Saginaw Chippewa, a tribe that is implacably opposed to Bay Mills' casino plans?

Martin is a member of the D.C. and Wisconsin bar associations. In a telephone interview, a legal ethics adviser for the District of Columbia Bar made it clear he would not comment on any particular person or situation.

The adviser, Saul Singer, did offer a general overview of the bar association's rules. "The confidentiality rule is very broad," he said. "The obligation to keep client's secrets is very broad."

If the rules are strict, they also may be moot in this matter.

"I was never acting as their attorney," Martin said of Bay Mills, "or as an attorney for the United States."

'This is so unfair'
Rosenthal, a Flint native, worked as an aide to U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Flint, for more than 11 years. During that time, he helped create the influential Congressional Native American Caucus, a bipartisan group that now includes 99 of the House's 435 members.

Rosenthal said he's well aware that casino infighting gets ugly, but he also said a newspaper article about Martin's role in the Port Huron casino effort is unjustified and unfair.

"She hasn't done one thing wrong," he said. "You talked to ethics experts (at the Interior Department). They told you she hasn't done anything. This is so unfair."

Career springboards
If Martin used a government job as a springboard to better-paying positions in the private sector, so have members of Port Huron's lobbying team.

For example, lawyer Lance Boldrey drafted the original Bay Mills land-settlement agreement as a legal adviser to Gov. John Engler. After Engler left office, Boldrey took a job with Dykema-Gossett, a prominent Detroit law firm.

In his new role, Boldrey is advising casino developer Mike Malik, who's positioned to make tens of millions of dollars in management fees if Bay Mills opens a Port Huron casino.

Under the Michigan Bar's code of ethics, Boldrey would be allowed to advise Malik only if he first obtained a waiver from Engler's successor, Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

Liz Boyd, the governor's press secretary, confirmed that Boldrey indeed has obtained such a waiver.

Note: apparently there was more to this article, including assertions made about TVT, in print format but the staff at the Port Huron Times Herald has failed to translate the entire article when posting on the Web.

Granholm backs Port Huron casino; congressional hearing set for Feb. 6

1.24.08

Gambling on Port Huron
Granholm's support improves the odds for a riverfront casino

By MIKE CONNELL
Times Herald

The long-stalled effort to open an Indian-owned casino in Port Huron has received a major boost from Michigan's governor, who has thrown her support behind the project.

In exchange for her endorsement, Gov. Jennifer Granholm modified the state's 5½-year-old agreement with an Upper Peninsula tribe.

The new deal would increase the state's share of gaming revenues by as much as $30 million a year. It also opens the door for building the casino at Desmond Landing rather than at the Thomas Edison Inn.

"I strongly encourage you to support this legislation," the governor wrote in a letter to Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., and Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, the leaders of the House Committee on Natural Resources.

The committee has scheduled a Feb. 6 hearing on H.R. 2176, a bill introduced eight months ago by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee. The measure would pave the way for a Port Huron casino by providing congressional approval of a land-settlement deal originally made in August 2002 by former Gov. John Engler and the Bay Mills Indian Community of Chippewa County, which is in Stupak's district.

Jeff Parker, the president of the tribe's executive council, said the agreement he and Granholm quietly signed on Nov. 13 was a crucial step.

"It's very important to have her support," he said.

Leaders back casino
Significantly, the governor's endorsement means the proposed casino has the backing of the political leaders who represent Port Huron in Lansing and Washington.

Along with Granholm, a Democrat, and Engler, a Republican, the proposal has been endorsed by Michigan's two senators, Democrats Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow. Rep. Candice Miller, R-Harrison Township, whose district includes the city, co-sponsored Stupak's bill, as did Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., co-chairman of the Congressional Native American Caucus.

The casino also has the backing of the local legislative delegation, the Port Huron City Council and the St. Clair County Board of Commissioners. City voters gave their blessing in a 2001 referendum.

A final step - congressional and presidential approval of the land settlement - has proven elusive. Several bills have gone nowhere. There have been hearings in both the Senate and the House, but the issue has yet to come up for a vote before a congressional committee.

Hearing set for Feb. 6
That could change next month when the House Natural Resources Committee is scheduled to debate Stupak's bill.

Allyson Groff, the committee's communications director, said a specific date has not been finalized, but Larry Rosenthal of Ietan Consulting said the hearing will be Feb. 6.

Rosenthal, a former aide to Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Flint, is a lobbyist for the Saginaw Chippewa, whose casino in Mount Pleasant is Michigan's largest. The tribe is a vigorous opponent of the Port Huron proposal.

Rosenthal described the land-settlement deal as a ruse meant to circumvent a 15-year-old compact between Michigan's federally recognized tribes, which agreed they would not engage in off-reservation gaming unless all 12 tribes agreed. At least nine of the 12 tribes oppose the Port Huron proposal.

The Saginaw tribe includes descendants of the Blackwater River band, which had a 1,287-acre reservation from 1807 to 1836 in the frontier settlement that would become Port Huron.

"Those are the ancestral lands where the Saginaw Chippewa lived and died," Rosenthal said. "This is a scurrilous attempt to undermine the Michigan gaming compact and to undermine the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act."

MGM, Detroit oppose deal
Along with the Saginaw Chippewa, other powerful foes of the Port Huron proposal include gaming giant MGM Mirage, which operates a casino in Detroit, and the political delegations of both Detroit and Nevada.

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said his city's three casinos have created nearly 10,000 jobs.

"These jobs meet the original goal that the people of the state of Michigan endorsed (in 1994) when the casinos were approved - economic self-sufficiency for Detroit," the mayor wrote in a letter to the congressional committee. "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."

The mayor reportedly will be the first witness called at the Feb. 6 hearing, although Groff said she could not confirm that.

Two months ago, the 48-member House Natural Resources Committee was scheduled to debate and vote on casino proposals for Port Huron and Romulus. At the last moment, those votes were delayed, reportedly at the request of Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Detroit.

She is the mayor's mother and chairwoman of the influential Congressional Black Caucus. MGM Mirage is one of her most generous campaign supporters.

'Fair playing field'
Proponents describe the casino as a life buoy for Port Huron, which has experienced double-digit unemployment for several years. The city is one of the most economically depressed communities in Michigan, the state with the nation's highest jobless rate.

Port Huron also is the only community on the U.S.-Canadian border where a casino exists on the Canadian side without competition on the American shore.

In fact, there are two casinos across the St. Clair River. The Point Edward Charity Casino sits directly across from the Edison Inn, while Hiawatha Slots is part of a harness-racing complex in Sarnia.

The two Canadian casinos are operated by the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission, which last week shared quarterly payments of $451,282 with Point Edward and $390,840 with Sarnia. The two communities have split about $40 million in gaming revenues in the past eight years.

"Our studies show that about 77% of that is American money," said Richard Cummings, president of the Michigan Machinists and a founding member of the Thomas Edison Casino Advisory Committee. "All we're asking for is a chance to compete on a fair playing field."

State's share rises
In a letter to the congressional committee, Granholm described the Port Huron casino as "a win-win for everyone involved."

Elaborating on that point, she added: "Approval of this settlement will resolve outstanding land claims potentially affecting 200 families in the eastern Upper Peninsula, provide thousands of new jobs in the struggling border community of Port Huron, provide revenue sources to assist the Bay Mills Indian Community in its efforts to become economically self-sufficient and provide much-needed funds to state and local governments."

Liz Boyd, the governor's press secretary, said Granholm would not have endorsed a Port Huron casino without the modifications to the 2002 agreement.

The new deal raises the state's share of so-called "net win" revenues from a flat 8% to a sliding scale of 9% to 13%, depending on how much business the casino does. "Net win" refers to the amount the casino takes in from slot machines and other electronic games, minus the amount paid out in winnings.

If the casino opens, the governor said her cash-strapped state would see its share of annual revenues increase by $20 million to $30 million, depending on how successful the facility is.

Local share is 2%
Boyd said payments also would be more stable than under the Engler deal, which subjected the state's share to possible termination if new gaming was allowed elsewhere. The agreement also provides the state with a share of revenues from Bay Mills' two existing casinos in Brimley, a resort town on Lake Superior.

Bay Mills also would be required to pay 2% of its net win to local governments. The tribe also could be asked to make other concessions.

St. Clair County's administrator, Shaun Groden, and Port Huron's city manager, Karl Tomion, said they are awaiting congressional action before negotiating with Bay Mills.

Both men have argued that congressional approval of a casino would be one way to offset the damage that seems inevitable if Homeland Security levels dozens of Port Huron homes and businesses to expand the border-inspection plaza.

Boyd said local governments have the option of creating a revenue-sharing board to receive and disburse casino funds, which are intended in part to compensate for lost property taxes.

Dispute dates to 1850s
The land-settlement deal resolves a dispute that dates to the 1850s, when Michigan Gov. Kinsley Bingham promised the Chippewas a 110-acre parcel on the St. Mary River. Despite that pledge, the property was seized by local officials for back taxes and sold off.

Today, dozens of families own property at Charlotte Beach, the disputed parcel. Under the terms of the settlement, the Indians are to surrender their claims to the 110 acres, giving clear title to the current property owners.

In exchange, the Chippewas are to receive reservations - land that will be held in trust for them by the Interior Department - in southeastern Michigan.

A complicating factor is that the Bay Mills band split from Michigan's largest tribe, the Sault Chippewa, in the late 1940s. Both tribes have claims to Charlotte Beach, and both agreed to settlements in exchange for casinos hundreds of miles from their reservations.

The Sault's deal with Engler, which also has been restructured by Granholm, allows the tribe to open a casino at one of three locations - Romulus, Flint or in Monroe County south of the River Raisin. The Sault's preference is a site near Metro Airport in Romulus.

2nd site is option
Under the 2002 deal, Bay Mills could build its casino only at the Thomas Edison Inn, a 12½-acre parcel adjacent to the Blue Water Bridge.

The new deal gives the tribe an alternative site - a 19.6-acre parcel at Desmond Landing. It amounts to about one-third of the acreage put together in the past decade by philanthropist James Acheson, who owns a mile of waterfront property on the St. Clair River between the mouth of the Black River and the Seaway Terminal

Casino developer Mike Malik said the Edison Inn remains the preferred site. He said he has an option to buy the inn and has made payments for several months to help keep its doors open.

"I have a considerable investment in the Edison Inn," he said.

Malik said Bay Mills asked the governor for an alternative site because of concerns that Homeland Security might oppose the construction of a high-rise hotel beside the bridge, one of the busiest crossings on the Canadian border.

A proposed $433 million expansion of the border-inspection plaza is expected to come up for final approval later this year. If the project goes forward as expected, it would mean five years of construction near the Edison Inn.

"We all have questions about what the federal government intends to do," Malik said.

'Nice, safe, fun city'
Malik is a Detroit native whose family moved to Clay Township when he was a youngster. He is a former Algonac city councilman and a business partner of billionaire Marian Ilitch, who owns the MotorCity Casino in Detroit. Her family holdings also include the Detroit Tigers, the Red Wings and Little Caesar's Pizza.

Ilitch supports the Port Huron casino but has said she is playing no role in its development.

If the casino opens, Malik stands to receive 30% of its revenues for seven years through a management contract with Bay Mills. In part, the money would reimburse him for start-up costs as well as the millions he already has invested in lobbying, legal, architectural and other expenses.

"Our biggest job is to get it up and running, and to pay the debts," Malik said. "I see Port Huron as a tourist destination, a great place to come for two or three hours to see the river and the boats. This is a nice, safe, fun city."

Doug Austin, executive vice president of Acheson Ventures, said negotiations with Bay Mills and Malik are ongoing.

"We still have questions," he said. "Nothing is resolved."

He said a promenade will be built from the Military Street drawbridge to the Seaway Terminal, a distance of more than a mile, to guarantee public access to the waterfront.

Austin also said any proceeds Acheson receives from the casino "will be pumped back into the community. ... The money will be used to pursue what our original stakeholders, the people who live on the south side (of the Black River), told us they wanted."