Topeka (AP) -- Legislative leaders plan to move quickly toward voting on
whether to ratify gambling compacts between the state and Indian tribes.
The Joint Committee on Gaming Compacts scheduled its first meeting for
today. Its six members planned to meet this evening with representatives of
the Kickapoo and Prairie Band Potawatomi tribes, which have sued the state
because they want to open casinos.
The committee was established under a law that took effect last week. It
requires the full Legislature to vote on whether to accept Indian gambling
compacts as long as lawmakers are in session.
"I think we'll have a vote in the next couple of weeks," said Senate Pres.
Bud Burke, Republican-Olathe. "We're going to have to move on it very quickly"
Committee members said they plan to draft a list of items they believe Gov.
Joan Finney should include in each gambling compact. Rep. Tim Shallenburger,
Republican-Baxter Springs, said he wants his colleagues to discuss whether
they should express opposition to casinos in general.
House Republicans have argued that while federal law requires the state to
negotiate compacts, nothing requres it to allow casinos. Atty. Gen. Bob
Stephan has disagreed.
"I'm sure it will come up," Shallenburger said. "I'll bring it up if
nobody else does."
Finney has promised to submit compacts between the state and the Kickapoo
and Potawatomi tribes to the Legislature as quickly as possible. She met
Monday in Washington, D.C. with Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, whose
department oversees Indian gaming issues.
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This on-going issue is a large, devisive one 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, really, is *who* profits and holds the power
if Indians get casinos on the reservations... -- Gaele
E. Gaele Gillespie / University of Kansas / Lawrence, KS 66045