but it drew little support due to legislators' aversion to controversy in an election year. Southern Indiana legislators introduced a bill to allow riverboat casinos on the Ohio River, which passed the House, and was then expanded, with support from Gary lawmakers, to include boats on Lake Michigan, which were seen as less controversial than land-based casinos. The bill was rejected by the Senate. With new backing from Republican entrepreneur Dean White, Brown reintroduced his bill in the 1993 session, with land-based casinos in Gary and French Lick, and riverboats on the Ohio River, and it passed the House, but was again voted down in Senate committee. A measure was introduced later in the session to allow four riverboats each on Lake Michigan and the Ohio, but it was killed by Senate leaders. Because it failed to approve a budget, the Assembly convened for a special session in June 1993. After weeks of wrangling, a compromise was reached on a Republican budget with no tax increases, with a few side issues to appease Democrats, including authorization of riverboat casinos. The law allowed up to five sites on the shore of Lake Michigan (including two in Gary), five on the Ohio River, and one on Patoka Lake, near French Lick. Casinos were expected to raise at least $100 million in taxes per year. Licensing and construction The first round of gaming license applications in September 1993 attracted 27 proposals for sites in 12 cities. Local referendums, required to authorize casinos in each city or county (except Gary), were held in November; voters in Clark, Floyd, Porter, and Warrick counties rejected casinos, while voters in Hammond and East Chicago and in Dearborn, LaPorte, Ohio, Switzerland, and Vanderburgh counties approved them. February 2, 1994 was the application deadline for licenses in the communities where referendums had passed; by that day, the number of applications had risen to 50. Officials in some cities conducted extensive hearings to decide which applicants to endorse, though the final decisions were in the hands of the Gaming Commission. City leaders examined 25 proposals in Gary, 6 in Evansville, and 8 in Lawrenceburg. After the Porter County referendum failed, several businessmen from Portage had sued the state, arguing that the riverboat law violated the state constitution's ban on special treatment for particular cities, because it called for citywide votes in Hammond and East Chicago, but countywide votes in all