March 1, 2003
Doyle vetoes casino bill
Lawmakers set vote on override to give them say in Indian compacts
By STEVEN WALTERS
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 

Madison - Gov. Jim Doyle on Friday used his first veto to reject a bill rushed to his desk last week that would require the Legislature to approve new tribal gaming compacts.

What's Next

Gov. Jim Doyle vetoed a bill Friday that would have given lawmakers final say over gaming compacts. Lawmakers will convene Monday in an attempt to override the veto, which requires a two-thirds vote of members present by both houses. Here's what happens next:
The Senate will first take up the bill Monday. Because there are two vacant seats, it will require 21 of the 31 senators to vote to override Doyle's veto. The Senate is controlled by Republicans, 18-13.

If the Senate votes to override the veto, the measure then will go to the Assembly, which has 98 members because of one vacancy. That will require 66 members to vote to override the veto. Republicans control the Assembly, 58-40.
If the effort to override fails, Doyle's veto will stand. 

Quotable

Government is not intended to be a one-man show. 

- Senate Majority Leader Mary Panzer

I will use all my executive authority -- including my veto power -- to keep Wisconsin on the path to fiscal responsibility. 

- Gov. Jim Doyle


Facing a budget deficit of $3.2 billion by mid-2005, Doyle said the bill would jeopardize the offer of all tribes to pay an additional $237 million over the next two years to help bail the state out of its fiscal mess and warned: "Make no mistake, every dollar we collect from the tribes is a dollar that taxpayers won't have to pay."

Although Doyle had signaled that he would veto the bill, the action quickly prompted angry Republicans to:

Schedule a Monday morning vote by the full Senate to try to override the veto, which would require two-thirds votes in both houses and be the first legislative override since the 1980s. If the Senate votes Monday to override, the Assembly would vote Tuesday morning. 
Ask President Bush to have the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs reject any so-called perpetuity clauses in new compacts with the Potawatomi or any other tribe. The clauses allow the deals to continue indefinitely.
 
Question what role former Democratic Gov. Martin Schreiber, a Doyle adviser and Potawatomi lobbyist, played in the proposed new gaming compact with the Potawatomi. Sen. Bob Welch (R-Redgranite) asked whether, when Schreiber advised Doyle, he was acting as a former governor or tribal lobbyist.
 
The veto escalated the battle over Indian gaming between the Democratic governor and Republicans who control the Legislature. Republicans say Doyle secretly cut deals that will give tribes regional gambling monopolies forever - concessions that Wisconsin residents resent. In addition to signing a compact with the Potawatomi, Doyle also has reached a tentative deal with the Oneida tribe.

The announcement of those two agreements prompted lawmakers to meet in a rare extraordinary session last week, where they quickly passed a bill requiring the legislative approval of all gaming compacts.

In vetoing that measure, Doyle said he is making better deals than former Republican Gov. Tommy G. Thompson did, and the Legislature ought not jeopardize expanded casinos and future tribal investments worth "hundreds of millions of dollars of economic development and thousands of new jobs."

The Potawatomi compact gives the tribe 24-hour gaming, an unlimited number of slot machines, new games and a southeastern Wisconsin zone free from competitors. In return, the tribe would pay the state $78 million more than now required by mid-2005.

"The agreements I am negotiating with Wisconsin's Indian tribes will generate four or five times as much revenue as the existing deals," the governor said a statement. "I will use all my executive authority - including my veto power - to keep Wisconsin on the path to fiscal responsibility."

Although Sen. Tom Reynolds (R-West Allis) and Rep. Carol Owens (R-Oshkosh) began circulating a letter asking Bush to direct the Bureau of Indian Affairs not to approve any clauses in the new compacts allowing them to go on forever, Doyle said Republicans were misrepresenting terms of the new deals.

"These compacts can be reviewed every five years for regulatory changes and every 25 for a complete review of all terms," the governor said.

When told of Republican efforts to kill the deals, Doyle said approval of the compacts is not a political issue.

"This is a federal law we are dealing with. The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act sets out the legal process for going through this. This isn't a question of whether political people like it or don't like it," he said.

Defending his veto at a news conference in Milwaukee, Doyle said economic growth is the long-term solution to mending the state's economy, but that it cannot be achieved without first balancing the state budget. And the new gaming contracts are part of the equation, he said.

"If we can come through this budget crisis without raising taxes at a time when at least 26 other states are actively considering raising their taxes, we will be in a much better position to compete," Doyle said.

Republicans react
Republican legislative leaders plotted their options - including next week's override vote, a potential lawsuit if the override effort fails, and possibly issuing subpoenas to those present during the negotiations.

"Government is not intended to be a one-man show," said Senate Majority Leader Mary Panzer (R-West Bend). "The Legislature has tried to hold out the olive branch to Governor Doyle a number of times. Each time . . . it is returned to us as kindling."

The first vote to override will come in the Senate, which will require 21 votes to override because two of the 33 seats are vacant.

Because there are 18 Republican senators, three Democrats - Sens. Russ Decker of Schofield, Roger Breske of the Town of Eland and Chuck Chvala of Madison - could play a key role in whether the governor is overridden. All three did not return calls asking how they would vote next week.

Breske is a former president of the Tavern League of Wisconsin, which wants the right to offer new gaming in restaurants and taverns. League officials are lobbying Republican legislators to try to find a way to kill the new compacts.

Chvala spoke in favor of the bill on the Senate floor last week, and has been at odds with Doyle.

Senate Democratic Leader Jon Erpenbach of Middleton predicted that the override would fail. Republicans never voted to override any Thompson vetoes, Erpenbach noted. "Now it's the Democrats' turn to back their governor," he said.

Doyle said an override was possible but noted: "In the original vote on this, there were more than enough votes to sustain the veto."

Schreiber's role questioned
Welch accused Doyle of "stonewalling" on what role Schreiber may have played in the negotiations for the new Potawatomi compact.

State Administration Secretary Marc Marotta, Doyle's senior negotiator on the compacts, said Schreiber "was involved in some of the discussions, no question about it."

Marotta said all major negotiating decisions were made by Jeff Crawford, the tribe's attorney general, and its Arizona lawyer, Eric Dahlstrom, and not Schreiber.

"I don't think Marty lobbied the governor" on the new Potawatomi compact, Marotta said.

Schreiber said Friday that he had told Doyle, whom he has known for decades, of "the importance of long-term compacts for economic development."

He also said he sat in on some bargaining sessions that led to the new Potawatomi pact but did not negotiate directly and never lobbied Doyle on details of the Potawatomi deal.

"I believe I can be a former governor, a friend of someone and a lobbyist with the highest integrity," Schreiber added.

In a statement, Potawatomi Chair Harold "Gus" Frank praised the governor for vetoing the bill and called for Doyle to sign similar pacts with other tribes "so that Wisconsin can move forward."

Kelly Wells of the Journal Sentinel staff, reporting from Milwaukee, contributed to this report.

A version of this story appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on March 1, 2003.