The Associated Press. Topeka -- Kansas Gov. Joan Finney on Wednesday
signed into law a bill that spells out how the Legislature can ratify Indian
gambling compacts, and she promised to submit two compacts to legislators
quickly.
The new law will take effect today when it is published in the _Kansas
Register_, the state's official legal publication. It requires Finney to
submit compacts to a joint legislative committee and specifies that the
Legislature or its leaders vote on them.
Finney's office and aides to Attorney General Bob Stephan plan to meet this
morning to discuss compacts between the state and the Kickapoo and Prairie Band
Potawatomi tribes. The governor already has signed the compacts with the two
tribes, but lawmakers have not ratified them. The tribes have sued the state
in federal court in hopes of having their compacts imposed despite legislative
inaction.
"I will be submitting them as soon as possible," Finney said in an interview
. Finney also said she plans to meet Monday with U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce
Babbitt, the official who oversees Indian affairs and Indian gambling issues.
She said the meeting would involve "interested governors."
2) Reprinted without permission from _The Kansas City Star_, 3/9/93
The Associated Press
Washington -- The question of casino gambling on Indian reservations should
be decided by Congress, not the federal courts, the chairman of the National
Governors Association said Monday.
Colorado Gov. Roy Romer said Congress needed to clarify the issue, because
states were spending too much money in the courts responding to lawsuits by
tribes that want gambling.
Romer and the governors of Arizona, Nevada, Kansas, and Rhode Island asked
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt to intervene and settle the growing number of
controversies between states and Indian tribes that see gambling as a way to
obtain money.
The governors consider the issue one of states' rights.
"What happens within a state ought to be decided by that state's citizens,"
Romer said. "A state ought to make that decision for itself, and it ought not
to have a dictate from the federal government as to what should be the form of
gaming and gambling within that state."
Romer said the discussion with Babbitt was about "whether or not there is a
resolution of this issue between the states and the tribes, short of congres-
sional action."
Of the five governors, only Joan Finney of Kansas supported the Indians'
right to open casinos under a federal law passed in 1988.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is a huge, devisive issue in Kansas. While everyone else is beginning
to cash in on the riverboat-casino-gambling stampede, the Native American
tribes are being denied gambling/casinos on their reservations. And of course
what's at issue is *who* profits if Indians get casinos on the reservations...
E. Gaele Gillespie / University of Kansas / Lawrence, KS 66045