PORTLAND – Maine Labor Commissioner Valerie Landry has come out against the creation of a casino, saying it isn’t the kind of economic development the state wants or needs.

She said the casino proposed by the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Nation tribes, with its promise of 4,740 jobs in southern Maine, doesn’t fit the image Maine has worked to build.

“If the goal of economic development is a diversified economy with a preponderance of high-wage jobs, a casino won’t spur it,” Landry said.

Gov. Angus King, who leaves office in January, already has voiced his opposition to a casino in Maine.

Landry addressed the issue for the first time during a breakfast forum sponsored by the Greater Portland Chamber of Commerce.

Gov.-elect John Baldacci also has said he will veto any bill that would legalize casino gambling. However, the question and attached legislation could go to voters in November 2003 as a referendum question.

The tribes’ proposal of a $650 million casino with an 875-room hotel, convention center, and golf course has won some support.

The tribes are focusing on Sanford in York County, where residents earlier this month voted in favor of hosting casino gambling.

Voters in the Kennebec County town of Fairfield also have voted in favor of a casino, but the tribes said they are concentrating on southern Maine because they hope to attract visitors from the Boston area.

Landry said the casino may seem like an attractive economic fix for the state, which is facing a $1 billion revenue shortfall in the next two-year budget cycle. But she said it didn’t work for Connecticut, which legalized slot machines in casinos in the early 1990s as a way of resolving a budget deficit.

“Ten years later, Connecticut has a huge budget deficit, and a million dollars a day going into Foxwoods,” she said.

Another speaker, John Menario, said the casino would drive up wages. Menario, a member of the state’s casino task force, said the average wage for casino workers would be approximately $31,000 and that nearby businesses would have to increase wages to retain employees.