Racino’s biggest backer doesn’t want tribal partnership

By Patrick Condon

Associated Press Writer

      ST. PAUL (AP) - The Legislature's most vocal supporter of a casino at Canterbury Park racetrack said Tuesday that he no longer supports linking that project with a second, state-tribal casino in Shakopee.

      The decision by Senate Minority Leader Dick Day, R-Owatonna, to yank his support is yet another blow to Gov. Tim Pawlenty's push for expanded gambling in Minnesota to help fund state needs.

      Day, who has pushed for the Canterbury Park racino for the last seven years, had initially supported the concept of joining the two proposals in a plan that calls for both the racino and the state-tribal casino at another site in Shakopee.

      But he said Tuesday he realized that the plan was getting too big and unwieldy, and he felt it was starting to harm the racino's chances as a stand-alone project.

      "It's getting very convoluted, and we're saying, let's take it back to square one,'' Day said. "We want the racino to be clean and stand or fall on its own.''

      Day said he expects the Legislature won't authorize the racino this year, but he said it would allow he and other supporters to renew their push next year.

      The racino-casino merger had been the latest permutation in Pawlenty's gambling push, which initiated out of what the governor has said is a desire to help poor Indian tribes from northern Minnesota get a more lucrative share of the Twin Cities market - and also help the state plug holes in its budget without raising taxes.

      Together, the racino and the casino are projected to raise about $300 million for the state in the next two years.

      But the ambitious proposal had seen a series of setbacks in recent weeks, as two of the three tribes partnering with the state - the Red Lake and Leech Lake tribes - withdrew from negotiations, saying they didn't want to join up with Canterbury Park.

      Only the White Earth tribe remains in negotiations with the state. Tribal Chairwoman Erma Vizenor said Tuesday she was disappointed by Day's decision, but said the tribe and Pawlenty's office would continue to pursue the plan.

      "Native people are a surviving people and we are accustomed to hard times,'' Vizenor said.

      Pawlenty's spokesman, Brian McClung, had no direct comment on Day's withdrawal of support. But he said the plan is still viable and that it has a good chance of being approved later this week when it's heard in the House Taxes Committee.