A battle that has absorbed the state Legislature for two weeks ended Tuesday with a vote to sustain Gov. Jim Doyle's veto of a bill that would have given legislators approval over tribal gaming compacts.
The state Senate voted 20-11 to override the veto. One more vote would have given Doyle's opponents the two-thirds majority needed to override the bill.
\Today's vote is a victory for the taxpayers of Wisconsin,"" the governor said in a statement Tuesday.
""The agreements will save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue that can be used to support our public schools, fund the University of Wisconsin, protect vital health care programs and preserve local services like police and fire protection.""
The Legislature called itself into an extraordinary session to pass the bill Feb. 21 after news broke of Doyle's tentative compact with the Oneida nation. Doyle vetoed the bill one week later.
His opponents criticized the Oneida deal and another with the Potowatomi because they had no expiration date and because they expanded gambling in exchange for greater contributions to the state. Democrats fired back with accusations that the majority party was trying to undercut the new governor.
Bi-partisan bickering upset American Indians because it shoved their concerns into the background, said Greg Garvin, executive administrative officer of the Ho-Chunk nation.
""We don't want to have to become a pawn of partisan politics,"" Garvin said.
He and his wife and son joined hundreds of Ho-Chunk members, clad in T-shirts reading ""Perpetual Jobs,"" at a rally at the Capitol Tuesday to support the governor's veto.
Garvin said the real issue is that tribes need gambling revenue to fund health care, education and social services. Perpetual compacts are important, he said, because with the five-year compacts the tribes have now, they can only get short-term financing from banks.
