Tribe, region benefit from casino revenues

Observer Staff

2/28/2006 12:00:00 AM

MT. PLEASANT (AP)-Lisa Kennedy sifts through the blueprints for a senior center planned for the Isabella Reservation, highlighting her favorite features.

The $10 million building-expected to open in 2007-could have 40 living units, including eight for residents with dementia. A health center is expected to have the latest exercise equipment with plenty of room for aerobics classes.

And the kitchen could crank out hundreds of meals a day for seniors living at the center and throughout Isabella County.

Kennedy, who will help run the center, says the long-sought dream will become reality only because of the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort-a $400 million-a-year moneymaker that Tribal leaders credit with raising the standard of living for their 3,200 members.

"It's just top-notch," Kennedy said of the center, which will replace a far smaller building that opened about 10 years ago. "Without the casino, it wouldn't be happening."

Critics-including Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers of Brighton and anti-gambling groups-worry about casinos' hidden effects on families of chronic gamblers and on the economies of nearby towns.

But on and near the Isabella Reservation, Tribal members are quick to mention the positives.

Casino cash has helped improve health care and education opportunities for Tribal members. It provides the money for an annual per-person payment to adult, full Tribal members that was an estimated $70,000 last year.

And it has spillover benefits for Isabella County, where the Saginaw Chippewa complex is the largest employer and 2 percent of the Tribe's gaming revenue goes to local governments and schools as part of an agreement reached with the state.

New subdivisions under construction on the Tribe's Isabella County reservation reflect the rising standard of living. The houses get more expensive with each wave, with the newest rivaling the finest in Mt. Pleasant.

"It's night and day," Frank Cloutier, a Saginaw Chippewa spokesman, says of how the standard of living has changed since the expanded casino and entertainment complex opened in 1998.

The Tribe's Nimkee Memorial Wellness Center opened in its current location in 1998. The building has a dental clinic, full-service pharmacy and a fitness center.

Its health clinic had one doctor and one examination room 25 years ago. Today's center has 86 employees, including additional medical staff and a full-time nutritionist. The center has nine exam rooms, and the medical staff will make house calls.

Technicians use the latest technology to screen for diabetes and other diseases common among the Indian population.

The Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College also opened in the late 1990s and has grown in large part because of casino and other Tribal revenue, which now provides half of the school's $1.2 million annual budget.

That keeps tuition at a relatively inexpensive $55 a credit hour for the college's 138 students studying business, liberal arts and Native American issues. The college hopes to gain accreditation from the North Central Association within a few years, an accomplishment that could be crucial to its future growth.

The Tribe's latest showcase, opened in 2004, is the $9.2 million Ziibiwing Center focused on Indian history and culture. Built with casino revenue and still funded partly through gift shops in the casino and hotel, it drew 22,000 visitors in 2005.

The Ziibiwing Center is designed to give outsiders a glimpse of the Anishinabe, Ojibway and Saginaw Chippewa world.

"We are still here and will always be here-that is the message," said Deborah Owl, a cultural center tour guide. Owl has one of the 4,000 jobs connected with the Saginaw Chippewa operation. Most of them are filled by non-Tribal members.

Isabella County's unemployment rate was 4.5 percent in December, the third-lowest of Michigan's 83 counties. Only Washtenaw County, at 3.8 percent, and Menominee County, at 4.3 percent, had a better rate.

Some studies have suggested that while casinos help the economies of their home counties, they may have negative effects in communities farther away-reflecting a loss in restaurant, hotel and entertainment revenue.

East Lansing-based Anderson Economic Group has published two recent studies estimating the potential effects of casinos proposed for west Michigan.

AEG projected that a casino proposed for Wayland would attract money and jobs to Allegan County, but drain resources and employment from nearby Barry, Kalamazoo, Kent and Ottawa counties. The study was done in 2003 for the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce.

"Communities can actually take a negative hit" said Rogers, a congressman who has proposed a series of bills to curb the growth of Indian gaming. "They lose restaurants and retailers."

AEG also did a study for Taxpayers of Michigan Against Casinos in 2004, questioning the proposed economic benefits of a casino proposed for New Buffalo. Casino supporters have criticized AEG's studies.

In Isabella County, home of the Soaring Eagle, most communities are benefiting from the casino's presence.

Soaring Eagle has paid out more than $75 million to Isabella County's local governments and schools since 1994, including about $4 million in a semiannual payout announced in December.

The recent payment will help rebuild an increasingly busy county road, aid a narcotics enforcement police team and assist projects in Mt. Pleasant, Beal City, Chippewa Hills and Shepherd school districts.

The Beal City district has installed three computer labs, boosted library and literacy programs, bought playground equipment and built a fence around a nearby pond with its recent payouts from the Saginaw Chippewas.

The money has been particularly welcome in the 640-student district, located about 15 miles northwest of Mount Pleasant, during recent years when state aid didn't grow.

"Most of those projects we would not have been able to do otherwise, especially in these times," Beal City Superintendent Robert Kjolhede said. (Tribal Observer photos)