While Gov. John Baldacci has promised to veto a bill that would allow racino gambling in Washington County, the bipartisan vote by the Legislature to allow another venue for slot machines in the state has opponents worried about the future.

Baldacci and representatives of the state’s Indian tribes met for close to two hours late Tuesday afternoon. The governor’s office said putting the racino out to referendum was one of many possibilities discussed, but “the governor has not waivered” in his plan to veto the racino bill, according to spokesman, Lynn Kippax Passamaquoddy Tribal Rep. Fred Moore characterized the discussions as “positive,” likening them to the change in the weather Tuesday, which was sunny.

“We have been discussing our respective positions…and will continue discussion,” Moore said.

The bill to allow the Passamaquoddy Indian Tribe to set up a gambling parlor in Calais as a form of economic development for the state’s poorest county, passed through the Legislature with stunning speed last week.

The desire to give Washington County a chance to try and boost tourism with slot machines was the reason most often cited. But so too were the notions that slots were no worse than lottery tickets and if they were all right for Bangor – Baldacci’s hometown – why not somewhere else.

“For the life of me, I can’t understand why it’s OK to have a racino in Bangor but not in Washington County and for our tribes,” said Sen. Libby Mitchell, D-Kennebec, a former speaker of the house.

Such comments have made Baldacci a bad guy in the eyes of some since the vote – which he apparently did not expect – and is forcing him to make good on a promised veto that will alienate some Washington County voters and further strain his relations with the state’s Indian tribes, damaged when he came out against an Indian-run casino at the start of his first term.

Sen. Kevin Raye, R-Washington, said Monday there was “stunned disbelief back home that the governor, who co-sponsored the casino bill 10 years ago, would veto this golden opportunity.” Baldacci supported a bill to build a full-blown casino in Calais 10 years ago when he was a state senator, but has since changed his mind on gambling. He is expected to veto the racino bill this week after meeting with tribal leaders on Tuesday.

A last-minute rally in the Senate on Friday that was supposed to turn the vote around never materialized and instead initial support was reconfirmed with a 19 to 15 vote with one member absent. The final House vote was 87-46 on Thursday, following a 94-53 vote on Tuesday.

The bill would allow the Passamaquoddy Tribe, in cooperation with the state’s other tribes, to operate up to 1,500 slots machines at a yet to be built harness racing track in Calais, providing voters there approved them in a local referendum. In a statewide referendum two years ago, voters approved slots only at the state’s two existing tracks – Bangor and Scarborough Downs – but only Bangor residents opted to support the deal.

Sen. Raye made an impassioned speech in favor of the slots on the Senate floor Friday. He said Washington County has the highest unemployment rate of Maine’s 16 counties and less than half the state’s average household income. The state’s efforts to improve the economy there simply haven’t worked because the area is remote.

“With this bill, at long last, we are presented with an opportunity to take advantage of our geography,” Raye said, and attract Canadian tourists to stop in Calais and spend money, instead of just passing through.

He said store owners watch “tour bus, after tour bus, after tour bus pass us by…A racino will help transform our area into a destination.”

As for concerns that it would threaten the quality of life in Southern Maine, Raye pointed out that “Foxwoods is a half an hour closer to Portland,” than Calais, and no one has tried to argue the Connecticut casino has had any effect on Maine.

Sen. Ethan Strimling, D-Cumberland, led the fight against the racino on the Senate floor, saying as the director of a program that serves the poor he doesn’t want to see more people impoverished because of a gambling habit.

“Slot machines are called video crack for a reason,” he said. “I do not need more clients, and I don’t know of another social service agency in the state that needs more clients.”

Saying real economic development was investment in schools, roads and research, Strimling said, “we don’t need more facilities in Maine that can suck money from poor people.”

Sen. Peter Mills, R-Somerset, also spoke against the racino on the Senate floor. Mills said his county too was among the state’s poorest, but gambling wasn’t the answer.

“It is the dumbest of human activities,” Mills said of gambling on slots. “It causes bankruptcy, divorce, criminal activities and drug abuse.”

He said the racino in Bangor – “approved with a thin public margin” – wasn’t even built yet, and the state was considering allowing another racino.

“How on earth are we going to turn down the other tribes?” he asked, when they say, “they got one; why don’t we get one?”

Sen. Phil Bartlett, D-Cumberland, who represents part of Scarborough and Westbrook where residents turned down a racino proposal for Scarborough Downs, voted against the bill because of the people he represents.

“I don’t have the moral opposition some do,” Bartlett said, but “there’s a lot of concern,” in his district over another racino being built in the state.

Sen. William Diamond, D-Cumberland, who before being elected to the Senate served as a lobbyist for Scarborough Downs, also voted against the Washington County racino.

Diamond said he wouldn’t approve another racino until Bangor was up and running.

“If Bangor goes well – and all the kinks get worked out and it doesn’t do all the bad things people have predicted,” Diamond said he “wouldn’t have a problem” with another racino in the state, as long as local voters approved it for their community.

Sen. Dana Dow, R-Lincoln, voted against the racino because he doesn’t like gambling.

“It is not an income producer, it’s an income shifter. It comes out of somebody’s pocket and goes to somebody else’s.”

Dow said more lottery tickets already are sold in Washington County than any other place in the state. “This would be more income relocated to some other pocket,” he said of the proposed racino. At the very least, he said, it should be put out to a statewide referendum, not decided by the Legislature.

Sen. Karl Turner, R-Cumberland, grew up in Washington County and said, “I didn’t realize I was a low-income person,” until he applied for college aid. “Washington County was in trouble when I was a child,” he said, and still is, despite state and federal economic development programs that have “poured money in.”

He voted in favor of the racino, he said, because it was a way for Washington County people “to try and lift themselves up.”

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