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The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to take up a bill Wednesday that could kill off-reservation casinos proposed by Indian tribes for Beloit, Shullsburg and Kenosha.
The plan is drawing protest from some Wisconsin tribes and U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison. Baldwin said it endangers a more than $200 million casino and water park that has enjoyed support from Beloit and Rock County officials who are considering a revised version of their agreement with the St. Croix and Bad River bands of Chippewa Indians.
But opponents, whose numbers include other Wisconsin Indians, say the bill is needed to strengthen local control over whether a community has a casino sited there and to control a trend of tribes seeking to establish casinos far from their existing reservations.
"It's clear to me that it's very troubling to the local casino advocates," Baldwin said.
Baldwin is seeking a full debate on the bill, which is scheduled to go before the House on a procedural move that calls for a shorter debate, no amendments and a two-thirds vote to pass.
Ken Walsh, a spokesman for the Potawatomi tribe, noted that a version of the bill had passed the House Committee on Resources on a bipartisan 27-9 vote - a more than two- thirds margin - in July.
Walsh called that "a good sign," noting that the Potawatomi believe the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs needs better criteria for deciding on off- reservation casinos in areas where the tribes have less established historical ties. The Forest County Potawatomi tribe, which operates an off- reservation Milwaukee casino, opposes plans by the Menominee Nation for another off- reservation casino in Kenosha.
Of the three proposed casinos in Wisconsin, Walsh said, "Those applications would still be able to proceed, however they would have to meet some heightened criteria."
Not everyone agreed on whether the applications stood a good chance of proceeding under the proposed law.
A grandfather section of the bill would allow applications to establish off-reservation casinos on trust land to proceed if they submitted before March 7 and are located within the state where the tribe lives and where it has a "primary geographical, historical and temporal nexus."
Joseph Hunt, a spokesman for the Chippewa bands' casino project, called the bill "problematic" but said it wouldn't necessarily kill the Beloit casino even if passed.
Hunt noted that the tribes submitted their application to federal officials in 2001 and have gotten support from Beloit and Rock County officials as well as Beloit voters in a referendum. In response to requests by federal officials, the city of Beloit recently approved a revision of an agreement with the tribes and the Rock County board is expected to take up the matter Thursday.
"We believe that this is the last piece of the puzzle," said Hunt, who hopes a favorable local vote could clear the way for eventual federal approval.
The Ho-Chunk Nation, which opposes the Beloit casino but is promoting off- reservation projects of its own, has a different view of the bill.
Mike Goze, a representative in the Ho-Chunk legislature, said the bill would likely kill a casino the tribe has proposed for a suburb south of Chicago as well as a fourth casino the tribe negotiated in a 1992 compact with the state of Wisconsin but has not sited.
"The bill itself, the way it's written right now, would virtually stop off-reservation casinos," Goze said.
Beloit City Attorney Tom Casper noted the local support for the proposed casino there, which would create an estimated 3,000 jobs and would share $140 million in revenues with the city of Beloit and Rock County over its first 10 years.
Goze said the Ho-Chunk opposed the casino because it would be on historical Ho- Chunk lands and would affect sales at the tribe's casino in Wisconsin Dells.
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