BIDDEFORD – Gov. Angus King told local business leaders they would pay a steep price if a proposed $650 million casino was built in York County.

King, who opposes the project proposed by the Passamaquoddy Tribe and the Penobscot Nation, said a casino would drain a tight labor pool and rob local businesses of customers.

“If you have one dollar to spend in a casino, that’s one dollar you don’t have to spend in a local store, a local restaurant,” King said.

On Monday, the independent governor compared the economic promise of a casino to the Maine Energy Recovery Corp. in Biddeford, which brought low trash-disposal fees at the expense of fouling the city’s air.

“I was going to say it’s another MERC without the smell. But it is MERC, but with a different smell,” he said. “It’s a smell of broken lives.”

The casino campaign has taken on the trappings of a political campaign, with nine communities voting separately on the issue on Election Day.

Officials in Biddeford and Sanford have expressed interest in having a casino, and are asking voters Nov. 5 where they stand.

Casino proponents are collecting signatures to put a referendum question on the 2003 statewide ballot that would make casino gambling legal in Maine.

The issue also has become highly political in the governor’s race, with all four candidates – Democrat John Baldacci, Green Independent Jonathan Carter, Republican Peter Cianchette and independent John Michael – opposing the idea.

The tribes want to build the casino off the Maine Turnpike in southern Maine, but have not specified a location.

They have released a sketch of what they want the casino and attached resort to look like, and said that it would create 4,000 new jobs with average annual wages of $31,400. It also would help relieve poverty for tribal members by bringing in an anticipated $50 million annually for each tribe.

Tribal officials say the state would collect more than $100 million annually from operations and taxes, and the host community would receive $5 million in local property taxes.

King said state government is already “addicted” to revenue from the Maine State Lottery, and questioned whether the $100 million in slot machine revenues promised to the state by the tribes is worth “fleecing our own people.”

“Do you really want to support a business where the idea is to get people slightly inebriated and separate them from their money?” he asked.

The event was held at the Wonderbar Restaurant owned by Biddeford Councilor Vincent Keely, who favors a casino in the city.

Keely said he doesn’t believe those who say a casino is bad for the economy. With L.L. Bean, the University of New England and Central Maine Power cutting back on employees, Keely said, new jobs are needed.

“Here we have something that will add 4,000 jobs, and they want to turn them away,” Keely said.