Tribal leaders of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians and Muskegon County, Michigan lawmakers were disappointed last week at the news Governor Gretchen Whitmer has been given another six months to consider and sign off on the tribe’s proposed off-reservation casino.
The U.S. Department of the Interior issued an 11th-hour extension for Whitmer to sign off on the $180 million project, which requires both federal and state approval. The federal government approved the project, sending the state a 10,000-page document detailing the proposed casino. Whitmer was to have made her decision this month. The extension gives her until June 16, 2022 to make her decision.
In an interview with the mlive.com news site, Muskegon County Commissioner Bob Scolnik said he’s anxious to get approval for the project, which is planned for the vacant 60-acre site of the shuttered Great Lakes Downs horse racetrack.
“I’m disappointed,” Scolnik said of the deadline extension. “I know there’s a lot of pressure on the governor not to sign it, but this has been in the works for 12 years. I thought if anybody could use a casino it’s Muskegon, for tourism, economic development—there’s a million reasons.”
The 149,000-square-foot casino has been proposed for 12 years before finally reaching the last step in the off-reservation gaming approval process. It would create 3,000 jobs, according to the tribe, and would generate an estimated $184 million in revenue in its first year of operation.
State Senator Jon Bumstead said the extension was “not the news” he wanted for the Muskegon County community.
“Every day she postpones this project, she is also delaying 1,500 construction jobs and 1,500 high-paying full-time jobs,” he said.
There is much opposition to the casino among state lawmakers. In February, the Michigan House of Representatives passed a resolution urging the governor to oppose any off-reservation gaming effort.
“I have had numerous conversations with Governor Whitmer about the casino in which she and her team have expressed the enormous legal complexity of the issue,” state Rep. Terry Sabo said in a statement. “Before they make their decision, they have to examine each and every page of the nearly 10,000-page document they received from the federal government.”
Tribal Ogema Larry Romanelli remained optimistic. “Over the next six months, we will continue to work with the community to show the positive impact and importance this project will have on jobs, tourism, convention business and the local economy,” Romanelli told mlive.com. “And we are confident in (Whitmer’s) final approval.”