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Assembly Committee Rejects Barstow Casino Plan
The state of California has been seeking a way to resolve a long drawn out legal battle to keep the ironically small 22-member Big Lagoon Rancheria from building a tribal casino on a coastal lagoon located in Humboldt County.
The Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians wanted a place to develop a gambling resort. The Cupeno tribe is an impoverished San Diego County tribe situated in remote mountains that is unfit for building. The two tribes may have had the solution in the form of the city of Barstow, located in the Mojave Desert with one-third of the population living on public assistance. With a casino in town, the city may just have economic salvation.
But now, it seems like the so-called "creative solution" being campaigned for by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is in danger. Last week, as Assembly governmental organization committee voted to reject the tribal gambling compacts that the governor negotiated in 2005 for the Barstow development. Now, the key players --- the tribes, the city and the governor's representatives --- are on a mission to keep the plan alive. The deal cannot push through without the Legislature's approval.
Barstow mayor Lawrence Dale says that having the casino in the city would bring 3, 700 jobs and $190 million in tribal payments over 20 years, the answer to the economically 'desperate' city's silent cry for help.
However, stiff opposition is faced by what Gov. Schwarzenegger thinks is an answer that "benefits the tribes, the city and all Californians". Some of the most powerful and richest gaming tribes in Southern California tag the Barstow plan as a case of "reservation shopping", allowing far-flung tribes to claim lands where they have no ancestral ties.
In 1999, 61 tribes signed a casino gambling compact with the state of California. The compact states that the tribes are not required to share their revenues with the state. However, an exception would have been made under the Barstow plan, with the two tribes paying a 16-25 percent share of casino profits, translating to a potential $200 million annually.
Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in Palm Springs chairman Richard Milanovich sent a letter of protest to the Assembly Committee, stating that this agreement would constitute an "illegal tax". He also protested against the Barstow compacts allowing the tribes to staff their casinos with union labor.
"The terms that were agreed to by those two tribes are such that it intrudes on our sovereignty, " he complained at Wednesday's hearing.
"It opens the door to labor. It opens the door to disgruntled city councils to take advantage of the tribes. That would put us at such a disadvantage it would not be worth it to us."
The protestations brought tears to the chairman of Big Lagoon Rancheria Virgil Moorehead. He angrily spoke out after Milanovich's mention of the $1.1 million annual payments that non-gaming tribes receive from California's Indian casino revenue sharing fund.
"I was around when he didn't have (anything). Richard was with me, " Moorehead lamented. "...Now the large tribes are saying you get a million dollars. That has substituted for handouts from the government. And they (other tribes) say you can't go into business."
Those opposing the Barstow plan include Agua Caliente and three other Southern California tribes with major casinos, including the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians in San Bernardino County and the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians and Morongo Band of Mission Indians in Riverside County. These gaming tribes have made substantial political contributions to members of the Assembly Committee who are voting on the Barstow plan.