From the Detroit Free Press:
During his testimony before the House Natural Resources Committee, Kilpatrick seemed at ease, defending his city from incursions he said no one should doubt would hurt Detroit’s three casinos.
“We’re pitting Port Huron against Romulus against Detroit,” he told the committee, with his mother, Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, looking on.
While Kwame Kilpatrick, his mother and another Detroit Democrat, Rep. John Conyers, opposed the measure, it had its supporters — including Rep. Candice Miller, a Harrison Township Republican whose district includes Port Huron, and Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, whose district includes Romulus.
Dingell said he has studies to prove that a casino in Romulus will help Wayne County. Port Huron, meanwhile, has an unemployment rate three times the national average and a Canadian casino just across the St. Clair River.
At issue are 2002 settlements signed by then-Gov. John Engler with the Bay Mills and Sault Ste. Marie Chippewa tribes. In exchange for dropping long-standing claims to land in the Upper Peninsula, the tribes would get land for the casinos.
MGM Grand Detroit casino is opposed to the legislation. But Detroit’s other two casinos are either in favor or silent. Marian Ilitch, who owns MotorCity Casino, is a partner in other ventures with Michael Malik, who wants to develop Port Huron’s casino for the Bay Mills tribe. The Sault Ste. Marie tribe wants to open the Romulus facility while still running Greektown Casino.
From Forbes (AP):
Then-Gov. John Engler negotiated agreements in 2002 that would allow the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and the Bay Mills Indian Community to take land in Romulus and Port Huron, respectively, and build casinos. In return the tribes agreed to give up their claim to the property in the Upper Peninsula.
Voters in both cities have supported the agreement, but the deal needs congressional approval.
The House bills have created unusual alliances, with support coming from Stupak, Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, and Republican Rep. Candice Miller of Macomb County’s Harrison Township. The lawmakers said the communities should have the opportunity to compete for the jobs and tax revenues that come from casinos.
Dingell noted that gambling was not mentioned in either bill and the two casinos would ‘create thousands of well-paying, union jobs’ to several parts of the state, which has struggled with the nation’s highest unemployment rate and the loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs.
From the Detroit News:
In his first public appearance outside Detroit since his text-message scandal broke, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick urged Congress Wednesday not to pave the way for two new casinos in southeastern Michigan because they would undermine the city’s revitalizing efforts by taking business from its own three gambling houses.
“Another casino in this mix would only hurt the total vitality of all the casinos,” Kilpatrick told the House Natural Resources Committee.
“We don’t have the market for another casino… (They) will take substantially away from the city of Detroit…. Two more casinos will take jobs away,” added Kilpatrick, whose mother, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick, D-Detroit, looked on.
From the Port Huron Times Herald:
The two bills, one introduced by Dingell and the other by Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, are meant to settle a land dispute dating to the 1850s.
Stupak’s bill would provide the Bay Mills Chippewa with land in Port Huron in exchange for giving up its claim to 110 acres at Charlotte Beach in the Upper Peninsula. Dingell’s bill offers the Sault Chippewa, which also has a Charlotte Beach claim, a casino site in either Flint or Romulus.
The political wrangling – seven members of Congress spoke in support of the bills and seven spoke against it – was hardly the day’s only highlight. Among other headlines:
Detroit’s embattled mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, made his first appearance on Capitol Hill in the two weeks since the text-and-sex scandal erupted.With his mom looking on, he seemed at ease. “We’re pitting Port Huron against Romulus against Detroit,” he testified. “There aren’t new gamers coming into the city of Detroit. … Another casino in the mix will only hurt the vitality of all these casinos.” Flint emerged as a clear alternative to Romulus as the location for a Sault Chippewa casino.Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Flint, an expert on Indian law and earlier a vigorous opponent of the land deals, threw his support behind the bills. “I have to consider the economic realities of my hometown,” he explained, and he proceeded to skewer most of the legal objections raised by opponents of the measure. The chief of the Saginaw Chippewa, which has joined MGM Mirage in financing the campaign to block the two casinos, tossed out a bombshell in the hearing’s final minutes.Chief Fred Cantu said he suspects the Charlotte Beach land claims were “a scam from the outset.” He said he will ask the Department of Interior to investigate allegations of fraud. The 49-member committee could vote on the two bills as early as next Wednesday, but Rep. Kilpatrick closed the hearing with an appeal for a postponement.
“We don’t want to be party to anything criminal,” she said. “I would just implore the committee to look further into the matter.”
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