Topeka — A compact permitting two Indian tribes to open a casino in Wyandotte County won't be reviewed by legislative leaders this week, House Speaker Doug Mays said Monday.
Mays' decision to block such a review means Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and the Kickapoo and Sac and Fox tribes will have to seek approval for the compact from the entire Legislature after it convenes in January. That could prove more difficult because far more legislators are involved and they could debate alternatives to the compact.
The compact would guarantee the state $50 million or more a year in revenues from the new casino, but the state would have to limit gambling elsewhere to protect the new casino from competition. It would be the first tribal-state agreement to give Kansas a share of casino revenues, though seven other states have similar arrangements with tribes.
"I believe this could be a lost opportunity for the people of Kansas," Sebelius said in a written statement. "The upcoming session will have no shortage of issues to compete for legislators' time."
But Mays said having only a few leaders decide would short-circuit the legislative process.
"A lot of people would consider it not legitimate," Mays, R-Topeka, said during an interview.
Mays can block a decision this week because as chairman of the Legislative Coordinating Council, he sets the agenda. The council, the Legislature's top seven leaders, can approve a gambling compact under Kansas law and is scheduled to meet Wednesday. May announced his decision to keep the compact off the council's agenda in a letter to other leaders.
"My desire is not to scuttle the compact but to travel the well-known path of legislative deliberation," Mays wrote.
Kickapoo leaders did not return a telephone call seeking comment, and Sac and Fox Chairwoman Sandra Keo said she had not seen Mays' letter.
Sebelius noted a legislative committee examined the compact twice before forwarding it to leaders last week. She said starting the review over in January would be a waste of resources.
However, House Minority Leader Dennis McKinney, D-Greensburg, said some lawmakers want the full Legislature involved.
The U.S. Department of the Interior also must sign off on the tribes' proposed site near Kansas Speedway for them to build their proposed $210 million casino-and-hotel complex.
The Kickapoo and Sac and Fox already operate smaller, separate casinos in northeast Kansas, which eventually would close. They and two other tribes, the Iowa and Prairie Band Potawatomi, opened casinos under compacts negotiated in the 1990s, which did not give the state any revenues.
To receive revenues from the new Wyandotte County casino, the state would have to limit other new gambling to 600 or fewer slot machines each at Wichita Greyhound Park, a now-closed dog track north of Pittsburg and The Woodlands dog and horse racing park in Kansas City, Kan.
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