Tribe Offers Expansion Deal

The Seminole tribe is offering an instant $288 million and the promise of thousands of new jobs to lawmakers who are reviewing the tribe's gambling compact with the state.

James Allen, who runs the tribe's gambling operations, told a House committee today that the tribe is planning to expand its hotels and casinos around Florida if the deal Crist signed in 2007 stays in place.

That includes an expansion of the Hard Rock casino facility in Tampa. While still in the early design phase, the expansion would likely encompass roughly 1,000 additional hotel rooms, about 50,000 square feet of meeting and convention space, plus added retail and restaurant space.

If the state ratified the tribe's current compact - which the state Supreme Court declared void last summer - the Tampa project would likely take another year of design work and two years for construction, Allen said. The pace of construction would depend in part on the return to normalcy of the credit markets.

Allen said the result of all of the tribe's expansion plans around Florida would be 45,000 direct and indirect jobs for Florida and a $4.5 billion economic impact.

Meanwhile, he said, lawmakers could immediately drop an extra $288 million into the 2009-2010 state budget. Lawmakers will have to grapple with a revenue shortfall of as much as $4 billion when they draw up the budget this spring.

The $288 million is the total amount the tribe will pay to the state in the current and coming fiscal year. But it remains in escrow - unavailable to the state for spending - until the state signs off on a gaming compact with the tribe.

If the state fails to come to agreement on any kind of compact, the money in escrow will eventually return to the tribe, Allen said, but added, "That's not our intention."

Rep. Bill Galvano, who chairs the House committee reviewing the tribe's gaming compact, was little moved by the tribe's proposition. The compact, he says, is a policy matter that will set important precedent for gambling in the state.

Galvano, R-Bradenton, said he wants to start fresh negotiations on a compact "instead of having a yes or no" say on what the tribe and Crist agreed upon in late 2007.

Galvano is one of many House members who say the tribe's agreement with the state is invalid because the Supreme Court ruled last year that Crist didn't have the authority to sign it. The compact gives the tribe exclusive rights to offer banked card games like blackjack, in exchange for at least $100 million per year for the state.

The tribe has paid about $75 million into escrow so far for its gaming rights, including a $12.5 million payment being made this week.