http://djcoregon.com/news/2010/07/02...es-to-proceed/
Casino developers get signatures to proceed
POSTED: Friday, July 2, 2010 at 02:42 PM PT
BY: Nick Bjork
Tags: Bruce Studer, casinos, Matt Rossman, Wood Village
(File photo by Dan Carter/DJC)
Developers have secured the required signatures to get measures on the November ballot that would seek to allow them to renovate the Multnomah Kennel Club into Oregon's first non-tribal casino. (File photo by Dan Carter/DJC)
The developers of the proposed non-tribal casino in Wood Village have turned in the 327,000 signatures needed to get two measures on this year’s ballot.
The taxpaying casino would be in the former Multnomah Kennel Club, located at Southeast 223rd Avenue and Halsey Street.
The development team, with the help of the Portland-based signature gathering company Democracy Resources, gathered 183,000 signatures for a constitutional amendment that would allow a single taxpaying casino in Oregon. They also gathered 144,000 signatures for a statutory measure that establishes the Oregon Lottery as the oversight authority for the casino.
“We gathered all of those signatures in seven weeks,” said Matt Rossman, co-developer on the project with Bruce Studer. “That’s especially amazing considering the amount of rain we’ve had this month.”
Rossman added that the multi-million dollar expansion of the Multnomah Kennel Club would be funded entirely by private money and would receive no tax breaks. The project would create construction jobs, and the finished product would employ over 2,000 people, he said.
Under the current proposal, 25 percent of the gaming revenue would be returned to the public. Of that revenue, 50 percent would go to public education, 30 percent would be split among Oregon’s counties and the remaining 20 percent would go to various local agencies.
The two ballot measures will be voted on in November during the midterm elections.