AUGUSTA – A citizen-initiated bill that would authorize an Oxford County casino was killed in legislative committee on Wednesday. The issue will now be on the statewide ballot in November.

Despite the unanimous vote by the Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee against the bill, several legislators said they plan on voting in favor of it in the fall, including Rep. John Patrick, D-Rumford, the committee chairman, and Sen. Bruce Bryant, D-Oxford.

“I can envision a wonderful four-season resort casino in Oxford County,” Patrick said. He said the bill has some flaws, but that should not matter to citizens voting in the fall.

“I don’t think there’s ever been a perfect citizen’s initiative that has come forward,” he said. “But it’s about the concept and the idea behind it: Do people want a casino in Oxford County or don’t they want one?”

Seth Carey of Rumford, president of Evergreen Mountain Enterprises and the bill’s author, agreed with Patrick. The vote in November should not be about the details of the proposed casino, but rather a referendum on the idea of a casino in Oxford County, he said.

“It could be changed easily,” Carey said. “It mirrors the current law for the most part, except for a couple things.”

But those “couple things” are what Dennis Bailey, who represents CasinosNo!, hopes to exploit during his campaign to defeat the bill.

“You’re asking the voters too much to say, ‘vote for this bill, enact this into law, but don’t worry, we’ll change it,'” Bailey said. “I want to know now what I’m voting on and I think most people do too.”

The bill would send 39 percent of the casino’s profits back to the state, earmarked to specific programs including health care, student loan repayment and an east-west highway.

But the bill also includes several other provisions, including lowering the state gambling age from 21 to 19, placing a 10-year moratorium on building other casinos in Maine and granting the casino’s president a seat on all the boards of state agencies and programs that benefit from it financially.

Carey said that while he spent a lot of time crafting the bill’s language, it is negotiable.

“That’s just my personal opinion,” he said of the proposal to lower the gambling age. “If the Legislature or the people of Maine feel that it should be back up to 21, then I have no problem with that.”

Another concern raised by committee member Rep. Michael Carey, D-Lewiston, was the appointment of Seth Carey to the boards of programs receiving casino money.

“I want this money to go exactly to where I intended it to go and I should have some sort of say or right to, since I sort of created this money,” Seth Carey said.

He conceded that it might appear to people that he was attempting a power grab by appointing himself to the boards.

“It’s not true, but it’s their opinion and it’s fair for them to make that argument,” he said.

Robert Welch, director of Maine’s Gambling Control Board, and Michael Heath, executive director of the Christian Civic League of Maine, both testified against the bill.

Welch said the Department of Public Safety would have to add at least nine new positions to oversee the licensing and operation for the proposed casino at an estimated cost of $865,840.

“These figures could be substantially increased after the final model and design of this facility are identified,” he said.

Seth Carey admitted some important details of his proposal are missing, but might be announced any week now.

“We don’t know who we’re going to partner with; we don’t know who’s backing it; we don’t know where the site would be,” he said. “Those are going to determine the future of Oxford County.”

Proposed casino profit earmarks

(39% in total)

5% to help Maine residents repay student loans

4% to research and develop an east-west highway

3% to the University of Maine to develop and construct a biofuel facility

3% to make health care more affordable for Maine small businesses

2% to municipalities to provide property tax relief

2% to a Maine prepaid college plan

2% to help elderly pay for prescription drugs

2% to the Department of Transportation to improve rural roads

2% to the Maine Community College System

2% to the town the casino is built in

1% to general purpose aid for schools

1% to Maine’s Renewable Resource Fund

1% to the Finance Authority of Maine’s NextGen First Step Grant program

1% to regionalize municipal services

1% to help raise the minimum wage

1% to Maine residents who demonstrate energy efficiency

1% to improve river water quality, starting with the Androscoggin River

1% to Land for Maine’s Future Fund

1% to public access television

1% to Mainers 15- to 30-years-old to support ideas and projects that will stimulate Maine’s creative economy

1% to gambling addiction counseling

1% to Oxford County

Bill provisions

• Authorizes Evergreen Mountain Enterprises to operate a casino in Oxford County

• Requires local town approval for the casino

• Allows the casino to grant a line of credit to gamblers

• Allows an unlimited number of slots to operate in the Oxford County casino

• Bans all new, non-state authorized slot machines in Maine

• Lowers the minimum age to play a slot machine from age 21 to 19.

• Lowers the minimum age to work in a casino from age 20 to 18

• Appoints the casino president to all governing boards that receive money from the casino

• Places a 10 year moratorium on building of any additional casinos in Maine