By KATHERINE GREGG
Journal State House Bureau
and JOHN HILL
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE — With a 24-hour gambling bill now headed to his desk, Governor Carcieri served notice yesterday that he will “most likely” veto the legislation because he has “serious reservations and concerns” about the “inflated” revenue projections and does not believe the state should force more gambling on communities that do not want it.

Before the day was over, the Senate had nevertheless approved and sent to the governor a House-passed version of the bill allowing 24-hour gambling at the state’s two video-slot emporiums on weekends and the overnight hours before holidays.

The bill also stretches the closing time at Twin River and Newport Grand to 3 a.m. on all other days, promises Lincoln and Newport a bigger share of the gambling revenue than they currently get, pledges up to $14.1 million of money to school aid and requires a reassessment in a year. The vote was 29 to 6.

But at an impromptu midday news conference, Carcieri told reporters he had serious doubts about projections that overnight gambling will produce an additional $15 million for the state, from which the lawmakers have carved out an additional $1.1 million for Lincoln, one of the home districts of Senate President Joseph Montalbano, and an additional $173,005 for Newport, hometown of Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Paiva Weed.

“I really think it’s way over inflated,” Carcieri said.

He said he was also unswayed by the pledge that up to $14.1 million of the new gambling dollars would go into school aid because “money from lots of different pockets goes into schools aid.”

But Carcieri said the overriding issue for him is this: “I just don’t feel that it’s the state’s role to steamroll cities and towns…and both Lincoln and Newport have been pretty clear they don’t want 24-hour [gambling]. I’ve said this consistently. I told that to the speaker and Senate president…I’ve got to see, but it’s going to be very difficult for me to support this.”

In response, House Majority Leader Gordon Fox said: “We recognize there are concerns with local issues.” But with the state getting 60 percent of the video-gambling revenue at the two facilities, “I think those are state interests.”

It remains unclear, however, if Republican Carcieri can muster the votes necessary to block the overwhelmingly Democrat-controlled House and Senate from overriding his veto, which requires a three-fifths vote.

One version of the 24-hour gambling bill sponsored by Sen. Paul Moura, D-East Providence, cleared the Senate on a 27-to-6 vote Tuesday night.

A matching House bill, sponsored by Rep. William San Bento, D-Pawtucket, cleared the House the same night after close to three hours of raucous debate, on a 51-to-19 vote that saw all six members of the Lincoln and Newport delegations voting against it, including: Newport Representatives Steven Coaty, Amy Rice and Russell Jackson and Lincoln Representatives William McManus, Rene Menard and Peter Petrarca.

At one point, House Republicans cried foul when the House fell one vote short of the two-thirds — or 50-vote — approval the state Constitution requires for a “local appropriation,” but their arguments evaporated when House leaders rallied the extra votes needed to clear that threshold on the final vote.

It was that bill (H7040) that sailed through the Senate with no advance notice yesterday.

Despite the prospect of more money, Lincoln and Newport community leaders reiterated their opposition yesterday.

Newport Mayor Stephen C. Waluk said his community has consistently opposed “any kind of expansion of gambling without our approval,” so “we appreciate the governor keeping us in mind, as well as the people of Lincoln who have spoken out against it.”

“From my personal perspective,” he said, “Newport Grand is a good neighbor. I have no problems with them whatsoever and I don’t even think this is their doing necessarily, but the reality is this is an end-around the people of Newport having a say [in] what actually goes on in our own community. That’s bad. It’s bad at present, and it doesn’t bode well for the future when other casinos attempts are made to cut us out of the loop.”

Lincoln overwhelmingly rejected 24-hour gambling in a nonbinding referendum last fall. Yesterday, Lincoln Councilman Keith E. Macksoud, whose district includes the Twin River gaming complex, said, “I’m disappointed it passed...the General Assembly has gone against the wishes of the people of Lincoln.”

He said he was at least pleased that the bill included their three requests: limiting it to weekends and holidays; more money for Lincoln and a “sunset” provision that would end overnight gambling on June 30, 2009, unless the General Assembly votes to keep it going.

“But the town has already said no,” Macksoud said. “I think he [the governor] should veto it.” Council Vice President James R. Jahnz agreed.

Councilman Ronald McKenna said: “To the people who are in control, it contributes money and it’s not in their backyard, so they say it’s OK …What I want to know is what kind of people will be there at 2 or 3 in the morning pulling a machine?”

Town Councilman John W. Flynn said: “It’s a perfect example of how corrupt the legislature is.” But Flynn was also upset with his fellow councilmen.

He was the lone councilman to oppose a resolution the council passed saying if 24-hour gambling was allowed, the town wanted a larger share of the revenue from it, a one-year sunset provision and the limitation to weekends and holidays. Flynn said he thought that was a mistake: “I think the people in the town of Lincoln were sending mixed signals.”

Only Council President Jeremiah T. O’Grady saw an upside. “While the town was not able to use last November’s vote to prevent the expansion of operating hours at Twin River, we were able to use the vote as leverage to receive a significantly larger revenue share moving forward…If the projections prove accurate, Lincoln will have increased its local take by nearly 25 percent. This increase will occur at a time when the state is cutting local aid.”

“I have no doubt that Lincoln would not have received such a bump in revenue sharing had November’s election returned an opposite result or had there been no referendum at all,” O’Grady said.

Aware of the town councilors’ concerns about the overnight activity at Twin River, Montalbano yesterday said: “A year from now I fully intend to go the Town Council in Lincoln…with exact numbers,” give their opinion “great weight” as it is “weighed along with what I think is in the best interest of all of my constituents and the rest of the state.”

A spokeswoman for Twin River said the gambling hall would be ready to introduce overnight gambling just three or four business days after the legislation becomes law. There was no immediate response from Newport Grand officials.

—With reports from Steve Peoples of the State House Bureau

kgregg@projo.com