JACKSON, Miss. – Gov. Haley Barbour is calling Mississippi legislators into a special session next week and says he'll let them debate whether to let coast casinos build on land.
Barbour says he hopes for a "short, specific special session" dealing with Hurricane Katrina recovery issues, including a small-business loan program. The Aug. 29 storm killed at least 219 people in Mississippi and left a wide swath of destruction along the 80-mile coastline.
Debate over bringing casinos on land could turn contentious. A spokesman for the state's largest religious group, the Mississippi Baptist Convention, told The Associated Press after the hurricane that the convention might push lawmakers to outlaw casinos altogether.
Barbour said he's not yet taking a public stand about whether to allow casinos on land. But he controls what lawmakers consider during special sessions, and if he didn't want the discussion, he could simply not put the issue on the agenda.
"I don't want to stake out a position until I at least give the Gaming Commission the courtesy of hearing what their recommendations are," Barbour said Monday.
The special session starts Sept. 27. Barbour said the agenda also will include a proposal to establish a state loan program to help small businesses hurt by Katrina. The governor said Mississippi could put $25 million into the plan, and he hopes the federal government will match that with another $25 million to help small business owners rebuild. Businesses with up to 100 employees would be eligible for short-term, interest-free loans of up $25,000.
Despite Katrina's jolt to Mississippi's economy, Barbour said federal emergency spending should prevent a dramatic drop in the state's budget.
"There is nothing that I have seen thus far that makes me think we need a tax increase," the Republican governor said Monday.
Mississippi legalized casino gambling in 1990 but limited it to touristy areas along the Gulf Coast and the Mississippi River. The first dockside casino opened on a boat in 1992. Since then, most of the casinos have been built on barges but look like hulking, land-based buildings.
Katrina's powerful winds and storm surge tossed some of the casinos ashore and left jagged holes in others. Part of the Grand Casino in Gulfport shoved onto the beach-side U.S. 90.
The thriving coast gaming industry generated $500,000 a day in tax revenue before Katrina. A dozen casinos were already open on the coast and one more had been set to open this month.
Mississippi Gaming Commission chairman Jerry St. Pe and executive director Larry Gregory traveled to Las Vegas last week to meet with casino executives about their companies' future in Mississippi. St. Pe said most of them want the state to change its laws to allow casinos on land rather than only over water.
St. Pe said "there are differences of opinion" among industry executives about how far casinos should be allowed to go inland.
"I have heard nothing other than a commitment to remain and in the future have an even larger presence on the Mississippi Gulf Coast," St. Pe said.
Charles L. Sullivan, who has written books about the history of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and the history of hurricanes, said he's been concluding speeches for years by warning about safety hazards of having casinos over water.
"Every one of them, I have ended by saying, 'Some hot August night we're going to have land-based casinos whether the state Legislature of Mississippi wants them or not,'" Sullivan said Monday. "That always brought a little titter of laughter. Nobody is laughing now."
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