GOP state senator: Not ready for Gary land-based casino

• Reprints

Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary

Updated: February 14, 2012 10:16AM

INDIANAPOLIS — An effort to give Gary a land-based casino appears in jeopardy at least for this session of the Indiana General Assembly.

A key state senator said on Thursday that he doesn’t plan on giving the bill a committee hearing this year.

“We need to decide what is the overall plan that involves this thing and what’s the feasibility of this casino actually occurring,” said state Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, who chairs the committee where the bill is assigned. “I don’t think we’re ready yet.”

State Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary, who filed the Senate version of the bill, said lawmakers would know more on the future of the bill after a meeting with Gary Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson next week.

“The way Sen. Kenley operates he likes to see a situation in which he knows the bill will go through both houses,” Rogers said. “I think that’s what he’s in the process of doing now…the atmosphere this session on a lot of other things are causing him to speculate whether or not it will do any good to have a hearing.”

Along with the Senate bill, state Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, has filed a land-based casino bill in the House. That bill is assigned to the House Committee on Public Policy.

Freeman-Wilson hopes the bill will grow into a comprehensive legislative package for the city, but Gary officials are still working on the specifics.

Freeman-Wilson said she is in discussions with lawmakers to potentially add to the bill changes for the Gary/Chicago International Airport, an intermodal transportation facility and a trauma center or teaching hospital through a partnership with Indiana University Northwest.

Rogers expects those amendments will help the bill pass the Legislature, but Freeman-Wilson will need to sell her plan.

“Because all of the amendments that we’re speaking of would be positives not only for Gary but for the region and for the state,” said Rogers adding that all are income producing. “At that point it gives more legislators a stake in the legislation.”

Freeman-Wilson didn’t immediately return a call for comment on Thursday afternoon.

Kenley joins Rogers as an author on the Senate bill and finds merit in the proposal.

“I want to make sure it’s done correctly,” Kenley said, “and has a good chance to pass the Legislature. I don’t think we’re ready to take that step yet.”