GAMBLING Casinos must add jobs to win mayor's support

The new mayor would not want his city to become dependent on the tax money.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- The city's newly elected mayor said he will only back a proposal for casinos in Ohio if it guarantees jobs for residents and helps economic development in the city, in contrast to current Mayor Jane Campbell's solid support for casinos.
"You can't build an economy off vice," Frank Jackson said this week. Jackson beat Campbell for the mayor's seat in the Nov. 8 election.
Jackson said he doesn't oppose casinos, but he thinks any tax money Cleveland gets from a potential casino should go into a fund for economic development, not the city's operating budget, to prevent the city from becoming dependent on the casino's revenue.
In Detroit, three casinos generate $150 million annually in taxes and fees, while the city "is in the dumps," he said.
Supportive partnership
Campbell led a push earlier this year for a measure that would have allowed Ohio cities that have more than 55,000 residents or are county seats to vote on whether they want casinos.
Campbell failed to get enough signatures to put the casino issue on the November ballot, but other casino backers are proposing a measure for next year that would change the state constitution to allow casinos at Ohio's seven racetracks and in its biggest cities.
Joe Roman, head of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, an organization made up of city business leaders, said he expects to talk to Jackson soon about casinos as the group tries to build a coalition.
Roman said the partnership is working with racetrack owners, developers, an American Indian tribe and many local and state officials to try to reach a consensus by February.
The group would need to gather about 320,000 signatures to get on the ballot in November 2006. Ohioans have rejected two casino initiatives since 1990.
In the Nov. 8 election, voters in Lordstown and Monroe, in southwest Ohio, approved casino-related agreements with the Eastern Shawnee tribe, which is trying to overcome state and federal hurdles against gambling in Ohio.
"The results are heartening ... if only to show that places outside big cities are amenable to the concept," said Ohio Rep. Bill Seitz, a Cincinnati-area Republican.