AUGUSTA – More than six months and $6,000 later, a state task force charged with analyzing the impact of a Maine-based casino has produced numerous questions but no new answers in the ongoing gambling debate. It now appears likely the issue will be decided by the voters in a November referendum.

State Sen. Kevin Shorey, R-Calais, and Rep. Donna Loring, tribal representative for the Penobscot Nation, co-chaired the 18-member panel that met four times to review the pros and cons associated with building a $650 million casino that would be operated by Maine’s two largest Indian tribes. The task force was created after the tribes signaled their intent to submit a bill seeking the state’s permission to construct the casino. Casino gambling is illegal in Maine, although the tribes do operate high-stakes bingo games in various parts of the state.

The committee decided early on that its mission was to assemble information rather than offer a final recommendation on the plan. But it was clear from the report issued late last week that even definitive conclusions on the information that was assembled eluded the panel, which was composed of both casino advocates and opponents.

“This issue may not be a topic for quantitative analysis but rather a political judgment,” wrote the co-chairs. “The four meetings of the Task Force were not sufficient to provide the 121st Legislature and the people of Maine with a comprehensive report on the issues implicated by the legalization of casino gambling. The Task Force meeting generated more questions than answers.”

A staunch opponent of the casino, Michael Heath, executive director of the Christian Civic League of Maine, said he had received, but not yet read, the report. Heath’s organization even opposed creation of the task force to study the issue.

“The result of the report is worthless,” he said Thursday. “It was a waste of money and a waste of time.”

The report includes much of the factual information reviewed by the panel and a list of more than 50 questions as a framework for policy questions the task force said “must be addressed before the decision to legalize casino gambling is made.” The questions address a broad range of policy issues, ranging from identifying the social impacts of a casino to determining how a host site for the facility should be selected. The complete report will be available after noon Friday on the state’s Internet Web site: www.state.us/legis/OPLA/Reports2.htm.

“We couldn’t put every study in the report because it would be huge and it’s fairly thick right now,” Loring said. “There’s references to studies and a bibliography. Someone who is really interested in the issue can use that as a base to search and look for things to read.”

The Legislature authorized the committee after the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Indian Nation tribes raised the issue of seeking state approval to construct a casino in the state, preferably in southern Maine. The tribes have maintained that the Foxwoods-style casino would generate $130 million annually for the state and another $100 million per year that would be divided between both tribes. Nearly 90 percent of the casino’s customers, they said, would be nonresidents of Maine.

While the report was envisioned to help lawmakers address the question legislatively, a bill on the issue has yet to be submitted this session. Instead, the tribes have petitioned the state for permission to place the casino question before the voters in November. The Secretary of State’s Office is reviewing the petitions submitted by the tribes last month to determine the validity of signatures on the documents.

“And that makes the report totally irrelevant now, because the referendum will mean that the people, rather than the Legislature, will decide this issue,” Heath said Thursday.

Shorey and Loring both disagreed with Heath on the objectives of their panel and the value of the task force’s report. Should voters approve the question, the second session of the 121st Legislature would have to determine next year how gambling activity would be regulated.

“If the voters of the state of Maine do choose to approve the referendum, then this report will then become a road map for the state to say: ‘Here are the questions we need to answer and here are the things we need to know,'” Shorey said Thursday.