Potawatomi make deal

Pact allows 24-hour betting, nets state extra $78 million

By STEVEN WALTERS AND DENNIS CHAPTMAN swalters@journalsentinel.com

Tuesday, February 25, 2003

Madison -- Potawatomi Bingo Casino would offer 24-hour wagering along with simulcast betting on horse and dog races and unlimited slot machines under an open-ended agreement with the governor that gives the state an extra $78 million over the next two years, the Doyle administration said Monday.

The announcement came just three days after the GOP-controlled Legislature passed a bill that would strip Doyle of his sole authority to approve gaming compacts with tribes, and Republicans quickly decried the agreement.

Senate Majority Leader Mary Panzer (R-West Bend) complained that Doyle "sold the future for a handful of magic beans."

"There is no going back. Perpetuity is forever," she said. "He has sold the ability of future governors, future legislators and future generations to negotiate new compacts."

Assembly Speaker John Gard (R-Peshtigo) accused Doyle of "mishandling" his power in approving the agreement, which also opens the door to new games such as roulette and craps.

"Gov. Doyle's action to announce a sweetheart deal with the Potawatomi today is panicked, partisan and premature," Gard said, noting that the tribe's compact does not expire until June 2004.

But Administration Secretary Marc Marotta, who negotiated the pact, which was signed last week, called it "a very, very good deal for the state of Wisconsin."

Marotta said tribal casinos are -- and will remain -- part of Wisconsin's landscape, so it made sense to let them expand their hours, play now-forbidden games to compete with casinos in other Midwestern states and let them help bail state government out of its deficit mess.

Doyle is counting on getting an additional $237 million from the tribes as part of his plan to erase a $3.2 billion shortfall in the 2003-'05 budget. The gaming compact signed with the Potawatomi tribe is similar to a tentative agreement reached last week with the Oneida tribe, and Marotta said it could be a model for deals with the state's other tribes.

The new deal calls for the Potawatomi to pay the state $90.5 million through mid-2005; the previous compact called for payments totaling $12 million over the same period.

Death of dog tracks?

The compact also allows the tribe to offer betting on simulcast horse and dog races, something an official with Dairyland Greyhound Park in Kenosha said would likely be the death knell of that facility.

"It's absolutely unconscionable. What little gas is left in our tank is now being totally drained from us," said Roy Berger, Dairyland's executive vice president.

He said he saw no prospect for relief for the tracks once the new gambling deals are finalized. Only two of five dog tracks that started in the late 1980s remain in operation -- Dairyland and Geneva Lakes Greyhound Park in Delavan.

The track owners, in conjunction with tavern operators, have been seeking legislative approval for video slot machines hooked up to the state lottery, something the new tribal casino compacts would effectively quash. The new Potawatomi deal would give the tribe exclusive rights to casino games within 50 miles of its Menomonee Valley operation.

Potawatomi officials declined to comment Monday, instead scheduling a Capitol news conference for today to discuss the deal.

As they did with the tentative deal reached with the Oneida tribe, Republican lawmakers blasted Doyle for agreeing to a pact with no expiration date.

Marotta pointed to a clause in the Potawatomi compact that says either the state or the tribe can review the deal in 25 years. Both sides also agreed to accept binding arbitration to resolve other critical disputes, including the types of legal games, enforcement, state oversight, accounting and "health and safety" issues.

The compact that Marotta made public Monday was signed by Doyle on Feb. 19 and by Potawatomi Tribal Chairman Harold Frank one day earlier -- a delay that also angered Republican legislators.

Sen. Robert Welch (R-Redgranite), the co-sponsor of the bill that would strip the governor's sole authority to approve gaming compacts, said Doyle never mentioned the Potawatomi agreement when he met with Senate GOP leaders Thursday night.

Doyle spokesman Thad Nation said there was no earlier announcement because the state "needs to keep its tribal negotiations confidential as long as possible. We didn't want to jeopardize ongoing negotiations with other tribes."

Marotta said both the state and Potawatomi must agree on some fine- print details, including enforcement issues and how tribal payments will be spent. But the new gaming compact was final enough to go to the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, which also must approve it.

Marotta and Nation said the Potawatomi deal is the only one Doyle, who was in Washington on Monday, had actually signed.

But talks with the other tribes are "pretty fair along," added Marotta, who said more than $700,000 in contributions by three tribes -- including the Potawatomi -- to the Democratic National Committee before the Nov. 5 election for governor played no role in talks with any tribe.

Other officials privately said Doyle had either reached new deals with all other tribes or would do so before he must act on the bill that requires the Legislature to approve new compacts. Marotta said he expects to recommend that Doyle veto that bill, which was passed Friday. The measure was delivered to Doyle's office Monday, and he has six days to take action on it.

Asked during his trip to Washington whether more agreements with tribes would be announced soon, Doyle said the negotiations were in various stages.

"The Oneida and Potawatomi are done," he said. "We're close on others, and others we are beginning to talk to."

Also Monday, Doyle said he knew nothing about a Journal Sentinel report that the manager of former Gov. Scott McCallum's campaign said it had been offered a pre-election donation of about $500,000 in exchange for new, broader gaming compacts.

Columnists Cary Spivak and Dan Bice reported Sunday that Darrin Schmitz, now the executive director of the state Republican Party, told the columnists that the Ho-Chunk offered the contribution to whichever gubernatorial candidate agreed to open-ended gaming compacts.

"I was never in any meetings where something like they described happened," Doyle said. "They never said anything like that to me."

Journal Sentinel reporters Craig Gilbert, reporting from Washington, and Steve Schultze, reporting from Milwaukee, contributed to this report.

POTAWATOMI DEAL

-- Expanded betting: Pari-mutuel wagering would be allowed on live horse and dog races; no limit on number of slot machines at Milwaukee casino; roulette, craps and other games allowed if they're operating at northern Illinois casinos or in other Wisconsin tribal casinos.

-- Expanded hours: Casino could be open all day.

-- Payments to state: Potawatomi would pay the state $6.4 million on June 30 under old deal; $40.5 million in 2004; and $43.62 million in 2005.

-- Payments after 2005: In 2006, 7% of net profits; 2007-'08, 8% of profits; 2009, 7%; 2010-'11, 6%; and 6.5% thereafter.

-- 25-year review: The state or tribe could seek to amend the compact but not until mid-2029.

-- Sovereign immunity: Tribe agrees to give up its sovereign immunity, allowing it to be sued to enforce provisions of compact.

Source: State Department of Administration

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