| Senator
William H. Nickerson (R-Greenwich) participated in a press
conference in Hartford today with the Connecticut Alliance
Against Casino Expansion to announce legislation that would
effectively block a proliferation of gambling casinos in Connecticut.
The proposed legislation, developed by
the Alliance in consultation with Attorney General Richard
Blumenthal and legislators, would include two key elements:
(1) The repeal of Connecticut’s “Las
Vegas Nights” statute that in the past has given federally
recognized tribes the ability to establish casinos.
(2) A provision requiring that if an additional
Indian tribe is recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs
and seeks to enter into a casino compact with Connecticut
then the proponents must prepare an environmental impact
statement and must pay for the mitigation of all the environmental
issues.
Nickerson said, “Repeal of Las Vegas
Nights is key because in the past federal courts have ruled
that, under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, the
existence of Connecticut’s current Las Vegas Nights
law acts as a trigger which allows Indian casinos. By removing
this trigger we expect the courts to rule differently in
the future.”
“Secondly,
on the environmental side we are simply asking a potential
Indian casino developer to go through the same environmental
process which would be expected of any other major development
with widespread environmental and economic impact. Thus
this part of the legislation is simply a logical extension
of present state policy.”
“Frankly
the environmental impact statement is particularly important
as it would apply to a proposed Indian casino in Bridgeport.
The federal Department of Environmental Protection has already
designated southwest Fairfield County as an area of severe
non-attainment of federal air quality standards. The high
traffic volume which would be generated by a casino would
of course greatly add to the degraded air in Fairfield County
and it is hard to imagine how the casino proponents could
satisfactorily mitigate this.”
“I
look forward to working closely with the Governor and the
legislators on a bi-partisan base to move promptly on this
legislation in the coming session."
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