AUGUSTA – After nearly two hours of talks with Gov. John Baldacci on Tuesday, tribal leaders emerged from the Blaine House unexpectedly cheerful, despite no change in the governor’s intention to veto their plan for a racetrack casino in Washington County.

“Fruitful and positive,” Passamaquoddy Tribal Rep. Fred Moore said when characterizing the talks for reporters after the meeting. “We’re glad to be at the table and look forward to returning to the table.”

While Baldacci remained firm in his veto threat, administration officials left open the possibility of a statewide vote on the issue if Moore recalled and amended the bill to require such a referendum.

“The administration would be amenable to having the people vote,” Baldacci aide Lee Umphrey said. “We ended the meeting to allow the tribes to explore possibilities including calling back the legislation.”

“That’s something the tribes … would have to discuss and decide for themselves,” Moore later told The Associated Press.

As it stands, LD 1573 requires only a local vote before a racetrack casino with as many as 1,500 slot machines could be placed in a community. The host community must be within 45 miles of one of the two Passamaquoddy reservations in Washington County.

The bill won majority support in both the House and Senate last week, but fell short of the two-thirds threshold needed to override the governor’s looming veto.

Support in the House was broad, 87-46, but less so in the Senate, 19-15.

Baldacci’s willingness to postpone his veto until later this week, Umphrey reiterated, signaled no change in the governor’s opposition to the expansion of casino-style gambling.

Instead, he said, it was a “reflection of respect” for the tribes, with which Baldacci has had a long relationship both as governor and as a congressman.

Moore’s bill, modeled on the existing law allowing slot machines at Bangor Raceway, also has broad support from community leaders in Washington County, the state’s poorest.

Supporters of the plan said the racetrack casino, known as a “racino,” could aid in the region’s economic recovery.

Opponents of the bill say it would bring more economic hardship to the region in the form of bankruptcies, embezzlement and suicides.

CasinosNo! spokeswoman Valerie Landry said Tuesday she was disappointed in the possibility of a statewide vote on the Washington County “racino.”

“These bills are seductive in that they contain all the benefits but don’t describe any of the costs,” Landry said. “We look to the governor for leadership and we would hope he would veto it outright.”

While the Blaine House meeting centered on the slots legislation, Moore said, the meeting also included talks about other economic development options, but neither party was forthcoming about specifics.

During a break in Tuesday’s meeting, Penobscot Nation Rep. Michael Sockalexis was injured after falling on the Blaine House steps. He was taken by ambulance to MaineGeneral Medical Center in Augusta, where he was treated and released.