Editorial: County stalls on Cowlitz casino stance

Thursday, March 13, 2008  

"Clark County commissioners are having a difficult time standing behind their own words.

Commissioner Steve Stuart, in a Jan. 27 op-ed piece in The Columbian, wrote: “I don’t want a megacasino in Clark County, but county commissioners don’t get to decide; the federal government does.” Regardless of who decides, Steve, your opinion about a proposed Cowlitz Tribe megacasino near La Center is clear.

Commissioner Betty Sue Morris declared in her State of the County Address last month: “Let me be perfectly, unmistakably clear. Neither this board or the former board supports a casino at the La Center Junction, tribal or not. We do not allow gambling in the unincorporated areas of this county.” Fine. Put it to paper.

On a CVTV cable-TV show last month, Commissioner Marc Boldt said: “We have all three said we don’t think it’s (the casino) right.” Sign here, please.

But when the subject of the casino came up at their Tuesday meeting, the commissioners lapsed into indecision, a fidgeting reminiscent of Ralph Kramden’s “homina, homina, homina” stalling tactics years ago on “The Honeymooners” TV show.

As we have pointed out often before, when Interior Department Associate Deputy Secretary Jim Cason visited here two years ago, he declared, “A good-neighbor policy is important” to applicants for tribal casinos. Now that these three elected officials have declared individually that they don’t want to be neighbors to a casino, they should say so — formally— as a board of county commissioners."

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In our view: More stalling (The Columbian 3/13)