From our friends at Stop the Casino 101 :
Michigan attorney general sues over Lansing casino: Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette is attempting to block plans for a $245 million American Indian casino in downtown Lansing.
The Lansing State Journal reports the lawsuit filed Friday in federal court seeks to stop the Kewadin Lansing project.
The six-count lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court, alleges the Sault tribe is violating federal law by proceeding with the casino. Schuette also contends it also violates the gaming compact the Sault tribe signed with the state.
http://
Schuette sues to stop Lansing casino proposal
Sault tribe, Bernero say project will continue
Sep 10, 2012
An artist's rendering of a proposed casino project in downtown Lansing. The project would be called Kewadin Lansing. The casino is expected to bring an estimated 2,200 jobs to Lansing, 700 of them in construction. [Overstated projections!]
Written by Lindsay VanHulle
LANSING — An Upper Peninsula American Indian tribe at the center of a legal challenge from Michigan’s top prosecutor plans to continue working on a proposed tribal casino in downtown Lansing despite efforts to stop it.
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette is suing the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians to halt the Kewadin Lansing casino, the $245 million project that would be built adjacent to the Lansing Center on Michigan Avenue.
The six-count lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court, alleges the Sault tribe is violating federal law by proceeding with the casino. Schuette also contends it also violates the gaming compact the Sault tribe signed with the state.
The suit names the tribe, new tribal Chairman Aaron Payment and board members as defendants. The city and Mayor Virg Bernero are not part of the lawsuit.
Schuette’s complaint represents the first major legal challenge to the casino proposal since it was announced in January. He and Gov. Rick Snyder sent a letter to the tribe in February stating their opposition and plans to fight it.
“Certainly, we expected all along that the principal legal challenge would come from the state,” tribal attorney John Wernet said. “We all along fully expected a legal challenge — that was in fact a specific part of our planning — and we have all the confidence in the world that we will successfully defend the project.”
Tribal leaders plan to close on the sale of city property and apply to the U.S. Department of the Interior to hold the land in trust for gaming by Nov. 1. Federal approval is required before any casino can be built. Two parcels ultimately would be sold, totaling $1.24 million.
The 125,000-square-foot casino would add 2,200 jobs, 700 of them in construction. A portion of the electronic gaming revenue also would be used to fund a college scholarship for Lansing high school students.
Schuette’s main argument hinges on the 1988 federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, as well as a clause of the state’s 1993 gaming compact with the Sault tribe that states no land-trust application can be submitted to the Interior Department without a revenue-sharing agreement with other Michigan tribes.
“On information and belief, the Sault Tribe has not entered into a written agreement with the State’s other federally recognized Indian tribes that provides for each of the other tribes to share in the revenue that would be generated by a casino operated off its reservation by the Sault Tribe in the City of Lansing,” the complaint states.
Sault Ste. Marie is more than 250 miles from Lansing.
The regulatory act at the heart of Schuette’s complaint bans gaming on land taken into trust after 1988 with certain exceptions, including the settlement of a land claim.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment