Casino probably will strain schools If you're playing blackjack, deal me in. But I do have qualms about that proposed casino in Plover. The Lac du Flambeaus have offered to pay $4 million annually to local units of government to cushion the impact. It would be a 50-50 split between the village of Plover and Portage County. Yet the biggest financial strain could be on the Stevens Point Area School District and its taxpayers. The casino and its spin-offs could generate as many as 1,500 new jobs, we're told. Wonderful! But why? Since we have virtually full employment here, has anyone stopped to ask why we need those jobs, a hefty percentage of which are apt to be low-paying? The workers will have to come from outside, and many of them will have children who will need to be educated. Won't that increase our school operating costs, and maybe require one or more building additions? Since no one is offering the district a piece of that $4 million pie, the taxpayers in Junction City, Whiting, Stevens Point, the town of Dewey and elsewhere in the district will just have to swallow a tax increase, although they're being given no vote in the matter. Of course, valuation increases resulting from casino-related enterprises may take care of the tax problem. But the odds are better in blackjack. – George Rogers