The state Assembly chamber buzzed with heated debate late Friday afternoon as legislators passed a bill that would give them approval over tribal gaming contracts negotiated by the governor.
Republicans and Democrats argued bitterly over the bill, which would give legislators rubber-stamp approval over the contracts but would not not allow them to amend them or renegotiate.
The bill passed the state Assembly 58 to 31 on a virtual party line vote, leading Democrats to protest that the GOP-controlled Legislature is trying to usurp the governor's power. The bill passed the state Senate earlier in the day by a voice vote.
\This is a political game to undercut the new governor,"" said state Rep. James Kreuser, D-Kenosha.
Other Democrats accused Republicans of making a back door deal to usher in the bill with no public hearing. Republican leaders called the Legislature into a rare extraordinary session Thursday and Friday to consider the legislation following the announcement of a tentative compact deal between Gov. Jim Doyle and the Oneida tribe.
The Oneida compact gives the tribe expanded gaming rights and has no expiration date, to which many Republicans objected Friday, claiming the state could never review the contracts and would lose control of all regulation.
Several proponents of the bill, including Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo, accused the governor of keeping them in the dark over the tribal compacts, which determine what portion of gaming profits tribes give the state and are typically renewed every five years.
""If he's got nothing to hide, why doesn't he show us the deal?"" Gard said.
""I wish Governor Doyle would have had the courtesy in the last couple of days to pick up the phone and call some of us,"" he later added.
Doyle is expected to veto the bill, but a two-thirds majority vote in both houses would overturn the governor's veto. State Rep. Dan Schooff, D-Beloit, said the Assembly probably would not overturn the veto, but since the Senate took a voice vote he was unsure if they would overturn it.
Doyle blasted the Legislature's decision in a statement Friday, claiming the compacts were not indefinite and could be amended in 25 years. Doyle also said he expected to get $286 million from tribal gaming in the next two years, which would significantly help the state's empty coffers.
The governor's dealings with state tribes were thrown into question over the weekend as several newspaper reports showed that three Wisconsin tribes had donated $700,000 to the Democratic National Committee, which then donated $1 million to the Wisconsin Democratic Party a week before Doyle's election.
