01:00 AM EST on Tuesday, January 24, 2006

LAS VEGAS casinos have rarely been regarded as public-spirited institutions. You can bet that Harrah's latest plot to get its hooks into Rhode Island will do little to alter that reputation.

With stunning indifference to the good of the Ocean State, Harrah's last week backed a plan by Rep. Timothy Williamson (D.-West Warwick) that would undermine the landmark reform known as separation of powers, passed just two years ago by more than 78 percent of Rhode Island voters. (Mr. Williamson's hometown, West Warwick, of course, is where a proposed Harrah's-Narragansett Indian Tribe casino would go.)

That constitutional change, enacted after vigorous debate, bipartisan effort and citizen activism, finally ended 340 years of overweening legislative dominance of the political system, replacing it with a system modeled on that of other states and the U.S. government. It balanced power between the legislative, executive and judicial branches.

America's Founders understood well the corrupting nature of power. In crafting the U.S. Constitution, they barred the legislative branch from exerting executive powers. That is because corruption tends to run amok when those writing the laws are the same people implementing and enforcing them.

"If executive power, or any considerable part of it, is left in the hands of . . . an assembly, it will corrupt the legislature as necessarily as rust corrupts iron, or arsenic poisons the human body; and when the legislature is corrupted, the people are undone," wrote John Adams, one of America's shrewdest observers of political power and human nature.

"The accumulation of all powers . . . in the same hands . . . may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny," James Madison wrote in No. 47 of the Federalist Papers.

The last thing that Rhode Island needs is such a tyranny built with casino dollars. But that's apparently the plan.

Many good people have argued that the public should be allowed to vote on a casino, up or down. But even ardent supporters of a vote would have trouble choking down this abomination.

Representative Williamson seeks to amend the Rhode Island Constitution by writing in a specific tax rate for Harrah's -- the first time that a special deal crafted for a corporation would be part of the state's constitution.

In other states where their constitutions give special tax breaks to private interests -- such as West Virginia (coal) or Alabama (cotton and timber) -- citizens have found it virtually impossible to get rid of them, notes Philip West, executive director of Common Cause's Rhode Island affiliate. Those industries have used their influence to control state government, supplanting the public interest with their special interests.

But that's only part of the plan for Rhode Island.

The Harrah's-backed proposal seeks an exception from the state constitution's guarantee of separation of powers, so that those who write the gambling laws (legislators) would also implement and enforce them. The scheme would create a new "gaming commission" with vast powers over the new casino. Four of the seven members would be appointed by the House speaker and Senate president -- giving the legislature effective control of a board that would clearly serve an executive function.

It's as if separation of powers had never happened. Harrah's and its allies would simply sweep aside the wishes of more than three-quarters of Rhode Island voters and inject a virus into the state constitution, undermining the balance of power obtained only after years of hard work and citizen advocacy. It would create a system rife with potential for corruption.

No other state runs gambling that way, according to Common Cause. Not Nevada. Not New Jersey. Only Connecticut lets legislators name members to its gambling commission -- a dubious proposition -- but even it refrains from giving legislators majority control.

Perhaps Mr. Williamson and his allies believe that the public has forgotten separation of powers. Citizens tend to think that their representatives -- no matter how arrogant -- will pay heed to a constitutional amendment passed so overwhelmingly.

But, in fact, the legislature has yet to fully enact the public's will. It has not yet passed laws making changes in most boards and commissions to comply with the state's constitution. Only 26 of 78 public or quasi-public boards have been changed, by Mr. West's count. (To be fair, legislators are proceeding carefully, and should finish removing legislators from many more boards this year.)

So some lawmakers may think they can pull a fast one with a new gaming commission. If so, they are sorely mistaken, Mr. West contends. Rhode Island voters who passed separation of powers will be well informed about which legislators are betraying them.

"For legislators to vote for such a thing would be very counter-productive to their re-election," he said, "and we will try to make that an issue."

We may find out this year who has more power in Rhode Island: Harrah's and its lobbyists and legislators -- or 78 percent of the voters.

Edward Achorn is The Journal's deputy editorial-pages editor. His e-mail address is eachorn@projo.com.