House support keeps slots referendum alive

AUGUSTA – A tribal racetrack casino in Washington County won a new lease on life Monday with the House voting overwhelmingly to send the matter to statewide referendum in 2005.

The 97-40 vote came after an hour-long debate over the fast-tracked legislation, which, save for the referendum requirement, is identical to the bill the House killed just days earlier when it sustained Gov. John Baldacci’s veto.

“Give the tribes a chance to make their case to voters,” Rep. Sean Faircloth, D-Bangor, said Monday in support of the bill, which now heads to the Senate before returning to both houses for final passage.

Faircloth was one of 55 Democrats, 41 Republicans and one Green Independent to back the plan, which pending voter approval, would allow the Passamaquoddy Tribe to operate as many as 1,500 slot machines near its reservations in Washington County.

After vetoing the bill last Thursday, Baldacci suggested he could support a public vote on the issue as long as it won support from two-thirds of both the House and Senate.

Technically, a bill needs 101 votes to win two-thirds support in the 151-member House, but on Monday, administration officials said the vote, in which 71 percent of those present favored the plan, met that threshold.

“It’s consistent with the widespread support the governor has required as part of his agreement with the tribes,” said Lee Umphrey, Baldacci’s communications director.

The bill, sponsored by Passamaquoddy Tribal Rep. Fred Moore, has been a tougher sell in the Senate, where it could come up Tuesday afternoon.

When the Senate considered the original bill, the vote was 19-15, leaving the bill five votes short of Baldacci’s two-thirds threshold.

One of the bill’s chief opponents there, Sen. Ethan Strimling, D-Portland, predicted another close vote on the issue, but argued that the newly added referendum requirement was no reason to reconsider the bill.

“Nothing has changed with this,” Strimling said. “Whether it goes out to voters or not, it’s still not economic development and it should not be written into law.”

Moore’s new bill, like his old bill, is modeled after existing law allowing slot machines in Bangor, where Penn National Gaming Inc. plans to open a temporary facility with 500 slots by December.

During the House debate on LD 1690, there were familiar arguments from both sides. Supporters lauded the plan as much needed economic development for Washington County, the state’s poorest.

Opponents said the slot machines will bring nothing but economic and social woes, including bankruptcies, embezzlement and suicides.

On Monday, opponents of the plan also objected to the bill’s resurrection so late in the session, which is scheduled to end Wednesday.

“If this bill is going to be sent to voters, it needs to be crystal clear,” said Rep. Janet Mills, D-Farmington, who objected to several aspects of the bill, including its direct path to the House and Senate without the normal committee process.

Moore’s original bill did go through the typical legislative channels, including a public hearing. And Moore told his fellow Democrats before Monday’s vote there would be no shortage of discussion on the issue if it was sent to voters in 2005.

“It will get a huge public hearing between now and then,” Moore said during a morning caucus on the issue.