02:49 PM PST on Thursday, March 23, 2006
By kgw.com and AP Staff
Two Lake Oswego businessmen who wanted to build a $490 million casino at the former Multnomah Greyhound track got a setback Thursday.
Multnomah Greyhound Park
The now closed Multnomah Greyhound Park in Wood Village which two Lake Oswego businessmen hope to turn into a private casino.
The Oregon Secretary of State's office tossed out a November ballot measure that would have allowed the entertainment and gambling complex in Wood Village. The businessmen needed to change the state's constitution to build it.
Based on the advice of the attorney general, Ore. election officials determined the measure as written would not stand up to a court challenge because it linked two questions under one measure. The measure would have: a) amended the clause in the Oregon constitution that bans non-tribal casinos; and b) authorized the opening of a single, commercial, taxable casino.
Investment adviser Bruce Studer and attorney Matt Rossman, both of Lake Oswego, said they would re-file the initiative and unlink the items.
"With the Mohegan/Cowlitz tribal mega-casino proposal in La Center, Wash. moving forward, we know we are Oregon's only real answer to the threat of losing these benefits forever to Washington," Studer said in a prepared statement.
The duo has until July to collect the thousands of signatures needed to put their proposal onto the Nov. 7 ballot. They had planned to spend $8 million on the initiative campaign.
This was the latest bid to put a casino in proximity to the lucrative Portland market. Currently, the closest casino to Portland — and the state's top tourist attraction — is Spirit Mountain, run by the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde outside Salem.
Closer in, the Warm Springs tribe has won backing from Gov. Ted Kulongoski in their quest to build an off-reservation casino in the Columbia Gorge, about 40 miles east of Portland. And just 20 minutes over the border in La Center, Wash., the Cowlitz tribe is hoping to break ground on a new casino by 2007, according to a tribal spokesman.
Studer and Rossman said the Washington casino, in particular, had fueled their plans. If that casino — which still needs to secure both federal and state approval — gets off the ground, they speculate that it will capture much of the Portland market, funneling jobs and economic revenue from Oregon to Washington.
Dave Barnett, a spokesman for the Cowlitz casino project, dismissed the Wood Village proposal in December 2005, saying that the Washington tribe, "doesn't have an opinion on what happens in Oregon. There are two guys that are trying to make some money, and this is the angle they have chosen."
To sweeten their deal, Studer and Rossman have touted the potential for the creation of 2,000 jobs to staff the new complex, and said they'd dedicate 25 percent of revenue from their enterprise to public education, a big carrot to dangle in front of the state's perennially cash-strapped schools.
But Chip Terhune, a lobbyist for the Oregon Education Association, the state teachers' union, said the proposal needed much closer examination by schools advocates.
"On the plus side, it sounds as though there is the potential for some additional money for education," Terhune said. "But in the final analysis, it might not add up. People can do a lot of intriguing things with numbers. And there is a more fundamental question about whether or not (gaming) is an appropriate approach to funding schools as well."
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