MILLE LACS DONATIONS BENEFIT REGION

The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe donated more than $513,000 in cash and in-kind contributions to community programs in Minnesota and nationwide in 2009, according to tribal officials. The contributions went to 44 of Minnesota's 67 counties, and two Wisconsin counties that border on Mille Lacs' tribal lands.

Michael Garrow, Commissioner of Corporate Affairs for the Mille Lacs Band, said in a February 19 news release that the tribe is "committed to supporting organizations and causes that sustain our region and enrich the lives of our neighbors and community members." Donations benefited everything from youth wellness and family service groups to organizations that provide transitional employment for recovering alcoholics.

The Mille Lacs Band is the largest taxpayer in Pine County and one of the largest in Mille Lacs County. In 2008, the tribe paid over $1 million in property taxes to Pine County, nearly $400,000 to Mille Lacs County, and a small amount to Aitkin County. The tribe pays property taxes because some facilities are located on fee lands instead of trust land, making them subject to local taxes.

The Mille Lacs Band operates Grand Casino Mille Lacs and Grand Casino Hinckley, which together employ more than 2,800 people, of which about 91 percent are non-Indians. Another 640 people work for the tribal government and schools.

"The generosity of the Mille Lacs Band and other Minnesota tribes proves that the Native traditions of sharing are alive and well, even in these difficult economic times," said John McCarthy, executive director of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association (MIGA). "We are very proud of the great work MIGA tribes are doing all across the state."

GRAND FORKS HERALD: MINNESOTA MUSTN'T ROLL DICE ON REVENUE

Gambling revenue is not the solution to Minnesota's budget problems, says an editorial in the February 11 Grand Forks Herald. Here is the complete text of the column:

By Tom Dennis, Grand Forks Herald

Some Minnesota lawmakers would like to use gambling as a way to help close the state’s $1.2 billion dollar deficit,” a Duluth, Minn., newscast reported.

A DFL senator from Chisholm, Minn., said slots in bars “would be a better alternative to cutting services or raising taxes.”

No, they wouldn’t.

For one thing, gambling revenue wouldn’t fill Minnesota’s multi-billion dollar deficit hole. It wouldn’t even come close. The state still would have to cut services and/or raise taxes. There is no other way.

More important, while gambling revenue in theory could offset some spending cuts and tax hikes, the reality is that the revenue would be just another dodge, just another “easy choice” for lawmakers desperate to avoid the tough choices needed to balance the budget.

Consider Nevada and New Jersey, states whose budgets depend heavily on gambling revenues. Surely Nevada, with its world-famous casinos and gigantic tourism industry, would have enough income to weather the economic storm. Right?

Wrong. “Nevada’s budget is so far out of balance that by one account, the state could lay off every worker paid from the general fund and still be $300 million in the red,” The Associated Press reported last week.

“The economic downturn has hit so hard that prisons may be closed, entire colleges shuttered and thousands left without jobs.”

Today in an emergency State of the State address, the governor of Nevada will announce massive budget cuts — so massive that “poor people eligible for free Medicaid health care no longer would receive eyeglasses, dentures, hearing aids or as many adult diapers,” the Las Vegas Review Journal reported.

As a previous governor said, “The lesson from the past 20 years is clear: Our revenue system is broken because it has relied on regressive and unstable (gambling) taxes.”

OK, how about New Jersey?

“Gov. Chris Christie will declare a state of fiscal emergency Thursday (today) and freeze $1.6 billion in unexpended funds, including $475 million that had been intended as school aid,” Gannett News Service reported Wednesday.

Nevada and New Jersey are not alone. Once upon a time, gambling revenue was thought to be recession proof, but the industry’s expansion across the country has made it much less of a sure thing. In state after state, gambling revenues are falling, failing to keep pace with not only government spending but also traditional tax revenue, the Rockefeller Institute of Government reported last year.

Spending on education and other programs “will generally grow more rapidly than gambling revenue over time,” the institute declared.

“Thus, new gambling operations that are intended to pay for normal increases in general state spending may add to, rather than ease, long-term budget imbalances.”

The institute titled its report, “No More Jackpot.”

Then there’s the fact that vital portions of Minnesota already depend on gambling revenue: the state’s Indian tribes. Expanding gambling statewide would slash the tribes’ revenues — revenues the tribes need to combat some of the state’s worst problems of poverty, unemployment and crime.

“When budgets get tight, expanding gambling always looks to lawmakers like the perfect quick-fix solution,” John Kindt, a University of Illinois professor who studies the impact of state-sponsored gambling, told The New York Times last year.

“But in the end, it so often proves to be neither quick nor a fix.”

That’s advice Minnesota should heed.

MILLE LACS CHIEF EXEC WARNS AGAINST EXPANSION

In a commentary published today in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Mille Lacs Chief Executive warns that adding state-sponsored casinos at metro area racetracks will hurt her tribe and other rural casino operations. Here's the complete text of Anderson's column:

Marge Anderson: A metro-area casino would hurt the others

Gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton told reporters on Monday that if he is elected, he will push for a new casino in the Twin Cities that will share revenue with the state. "I don't see how this has any effect on any tribe, other than Mystic Lake," he said.

What Dayton is proposing is nothing new. From the moment that Minnesota's first tribal casinos began lifting tribes out of poverty, others have been trying to open up the state to privately owned casinos. But Dayton's reasoning -- that a new casino won't harm tribal casinos outside the metro area -- needs correcting.

Imagine if a lake the size of Mille Lacs, and with as many fish as Mille Lacs, were plopped into the metro area. Do you think that people in the Twin Cities would still flock to the real Mille Lacs Lake for fishing?

I think most of us would agree that people who used to drive north one or two hours to Mille Lacs would instead drive 15 minutes to the local lake to do their fishing. Mille Lacs would still be a great lake, but it would be in a less convenient location for most of the population. And that one strike against it would be impossible for many of the businesses around the lake to overcome.

This same reasoning applies to casinos.

Currently the biggest threats to Minnesota Indian gaming are proposed racinos at the Running Aces and Canterbury Park horsetracks in the Twin Cities -- just another iteration of the metro casino Dayton has in mind. Financial experts calculate the revenue losses at the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe's casinos -- Grand Casino Mille Lacs and Grand Casino Hinckley -- to be 30 percent to 40 percent if the racinos open. And these are just two of the state's 18 tribal casinos, many of which draw a significant portion of their visitors from the Twin Cities.

Some would say that tribal casinos would just need to become better competitors if a privately owned casino were to open in the Twin Cities. Of course we would do everything we could to compete; we already do. But location will always be a major factor in people's decisions, no matter how good we are otherwise.

Speaking for the Mille Lacs Band, our biggest issue with the racinos (and with a Twin Cities casino in general) is job loss. Rather than create new jobs, racinos would relocate thousands of jobs in rural communities to the metro area. The loser would be the people of rural Minnesota, where good jobs with benefits are as badly needed today as when Indian gaming was created. And just as a reminder, the state allowed Indian gaming in the first place to create jobs and boost the outstate economy.

Jobs aside, some people also have a false impression that if more casinos are built, more people will gamble. But studies show that Minnesota's gaming market is saturated. This means that overall, the people interested in gaming are already doing so. Neither racinos nor any other version of the same casino idea can force a market to grow. Any state leaders who envision money blowing through the Capitol's doors need a reality check.

Especially in today's challenging economy, casino revenues are no guarantee of wealth. That's why the majority of tribes are still working hard to bring their reservations out of poverty.

The Mille Lacs Band has made a lot of progress thanks to gaming revenues, and we do what we can to help band members, neighboring communities and local charities. But we still have significant unmet needs in comparison to the general population; we certainly haven't earned enough to make anyone wealthy.

Indian gaming is a proven, effective tool in meeting the need for outstate jobs and economic development without any state financial assistance. When so many problems today need fixing, why break a system that works?

OPPOSITION MOUNTS TO RACINO/VIKINGS PROPOSAL

Opposition is growing in response to Senator Dick Day's proposal to pay for a new Vikings stadium by authorizing racinos at Canterbury Park and Running Aces Harness Track.

In a December 11 commentary in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Twin Cities attorney and Republican activist Andy Brehm wrote, "Dick Day's proposal to pay for a stadium with proceeds from a racino sounds painless, but would in fact be very damaging."

Brehm warned that increasing access to gambling at the state's racetracks would carry "dramatic social costs." He noted the difference between recreational gambling at destination resorts and the gambling that would occur at local racinos, where "gambling addicts would have easy access to their vice and where those without the means to buy a plane ticket could still bet the family paycheck."

Brehm also questioned the wisdom of funding a Vikings stadium when more pressing priorities loom before the 2010 Minnesota Legislature.

"As we face a prolonged recession, looming budget deficits and historic unemployment, now is not the right time for the state to be paying for professional stadiums," he concluded. "If legislators feel differently, they should do it the Minnesota way, the open and honest way--raise taxes or cut spending."

TRIBES GEAR UP FOR LEGISLATIVE FIGHT

Member tribes of the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association (MIGA) are gearing up for a tough 2010 legislative session, as lawmakers indicate they may expand gambling to include racinos at the state's two racetracks, slot machines in neighborhood restaurants and bars, and other new gambling options.

MIGA Executive Director John McCarthy said that rural communities stand to be hurt the most if the state authorizes slot machines in bars.

"Most of the rural tribes have pretty small casinos, and they rely on their local market for most of their business," McCarthy said. "Those tribes could lose anywhere from ten to fifty percent of their business if the state puts slot machines in all the bars in their area."

Tribal casinos are the primary source of revenue to fund government programs and services, McCarthy said, so a large drop in casino business directly affects tribes' ability to provide education, health care, housing and other assistance to their members.

McCarthy noted that tribal casinos also serve as major economic engines in the counties where they are located. Of the 41,700 direct and indirect jobs supported by Indian tribes, more than 30,000 are located in rural Minnesota. Wages, health care benefits, and the purchase of goods and services were worth more than $950 million to rural counties in 2007, the most recent year for which data have been analyzed.

"Most of the MIGA tribes are already reporting drops of ten to fifteen percent in their revenues, just due to the recession," McCarthy said. "If they have to take another twenty to thirty percent hit because of state-sponsored competition, we're going to see some significant workforce reductions. The ripple effect on rural counties is going to be very severe."

Tribes are letting their employees know that if they want to protect their jobs, they may have to get involved and let their legislators know how they feel, McCarthy said.

"In an economy like this one, you can't afford to mess with an industry that supports 41,000-plus jobs statewide," he concluded.

TRIBAL GAMING JOBS BOOST RURAL MINNESOTA

Indian gaming and tribal governments account for more $1.5 billion in economic impact and over 16,000 jobs in rural Minnesota, according to a study conducted completed earlier this year by consulting policy analyst Barry Ryan, a former research fellow in the University of Minnesota's Department of Applied Economics. The study was commissioned by the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association (MIGA).

The study analyzed 2007 data and concluded that the positive economic impacts of Indian gaming are "widespread across rural Minnesota and benefited nearly every industry in the state."

Indian gaming and tribal governments accounted for more than 16,000 direct jobs and another 14,450 indirect jobs in rural Minnesota. That represents nearly 75 percent of the 41,700 direct and indirect jobs supported by Indian tribes.

In dollar terms, tribal gaming and government operations produced $2.75 billion in total economic impact, nearly $1.75 billion of it in rural Minnesota. The study defined "rural Minnesota" as everything outside the seven-county metro area of the Twin Cities.

The total economic impact number includes direct spending by tribes for payroll, purchased goods and services, and capital investment; and indirect spending by workers and vendors.

John McCarthy, executive director of MIGA, said the study also noted that tribes provide nearly $150 million in health care benefits to tribal gaming and government employees, a significant amount in Northern Minnesota, where many jobs include few or no health benefits.

"It's pretty clear from this study that the tribes are the economic engine of rural Minnesota," McCarthy said. "Without these jobs, there's no question that many rural counties would be hurting even worse than they are now."

McCarthy said MIGA is already planning its agenda for the 2010 legislative session. The association will actively oppose any proposed changes to the gambling landscape, he said.

"Indian tribes are keeping rural Minnesotans afloat," he said. "The state would be very foolish to rock that boat."