Posted on 08/19/2006 11:33:57 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO – The stark disparity in wealth and political power that Indian gambling has brought to California reservations has taken two tribes on decidedly different journeys in recent weeks.
The Agua Caliente band of Palm Springs already has 2,000 slot machines in two casinos that generate more than $250 million a year for the 400-member tribe.
The Quechan band, whose remote reservation straddles the California-Arizona border in Imperial County, has fewer than 800 slots in two small casinos that produced $71 million last year for the 3,600-member tribe.
Both tribes negotiated new gambling agreements that would permit expansions – a third casino and 3,000 more slots for Agua Caliente, 750 more slots for Quechan.
Even though Quechan supports nine times as many tribal members with a smaller gambling operation, the Schwarzenegger administration forced Quechan to accept less generous terms than it gave Agua Caliente.
The balance of the two gambling agreements – environmental, employee and patron protections as well as a requirement to assume responsibility for off-reservation impacts of casinos – are strikingly similar.
Yet their progress in the Legislature is anything but.
More than a year after signing its new compact, Quechan is still waiting for legislative ratification; the necessary bill stalled in the same Assembly committee where it has languished since last fall.
Agua Caliente signed its new deal on Aug. 8. The tribe's ratification measure is already on the Senate floor, where it is expected to pass Monday.
Over the past eight years, Agua Caliente has spent nearly $21 million on campaign contributions to initiatives and officeholders and candidates of both parties. That doesn't include the $10 million it paid disgraced Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associates.
Quechan makes no political contributions.
“We just don't have that political clout, that's just the bottom line,” said Larry Stidham, a Ramona attorney who represents Quechan. “Every dime the tribe gets is pumped back into infrastructure” with a small amount distributed to members.
“This is a struggling tribe, 3,600 members with huge housing needs,” he added.
While Agua Caliente could see its expansive new compact ratified next week, Quechan still has no commitment from anyone that its pending deal will be ratified before lawmakers adjourn for the year on Aug. 31. The delay is costing the tribe untold millions in deferred profits and increasing construction costs.
The Legislature has refused to ratify Schwarzenegger compacts with four other tribes, but all of those are either highly controversial or were withdrawn from consideration. Quechan alone has been pushing for months for a final vote.
In June, Agua Caliente Chairman Richard Milanovich testified against Quechan's deal. The compact also drew opposition from some of the state's other powerful gambling tribes – Sycuan of San Diego County, Pechanga of Temecula, San Manuel of San Bernardino County, as well the influential 13-member Tribal Alliance of Sovereign Indian Nations.
The opposition tribes argued that Quechan's deal, and one signed at the same time with the Yurok tribe of Northern California, contained provisions such as higher levels of payments to the state that would not affect those tribes, but were intended to establish precedents to be applied later to the big gaming tribes.
Quechan and its representatives argued there was nothing in their new compacts that the Legislature had not already approved in previous Schwarzenegger deals.
Asked to explain the apparent unequal treatment of the two tribes, lawmakers in both houses engaged in a round of fingerpointing.
Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, and three other senators close to the situation said they could not explain why the Assembly was holding the bill.
“I don't think the Legislature is treating the Agua compact differently,” Perata said. “The Senate is treating it the way I would like to see all compacts be treated. I don't know what they're doing over there” in the Assembly.
Assemblyman Jerome Horton, chairman of the Governmental Organization Committee, appears to be holding the bill. The Senate has held an informational hearing, but has not yet formally considered the Quechan compact.
After repeated requests, Horton, D-Inglewood, finally granted Quechan a hearing in his committee in late June, more than a year after the agreement was signed. But no vote was taken after the lengthy hearing and the ratification measure remains with the committee, although past compacts have been allowed to move directly to the floor.
Horton said he shared many of the concerns the big gaming tribes had about Quechan's new deal.
“They had language in there that would never apply to them,” Horton said. But he added the fate of Quechan's compact ultimately is a “leadership decision,” suggesting the decision rests with Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez's call, Horton said.
Sen. Denise Ducheny, a San Diego Democrat carrying the bill to ratify Quechan's compact, said she couldn't explain why Quechan has been stymied while Agua Caliente gets fast-track treatment with a similar compact.
“You're asking me to speculate about the speaker's mind,” a frustrated Ducheny said. “I can't do that. I've talked to the speaker. I've talked to Horton. I've talked to them all. I've been pushing them all year. They finally gave me the hearing and I thought that was progress.”
Núñez's office did not respond to a request for comment.
For a while last week, it appeared the long delay might actually have been something of a blessing for Quechan, which hoped to upgrade its compact with the more generous provisions in the Agua Caliente agreement.
In striking a compromise with Agua Caliente, Schwarzenegger lowered the state's financial demands to a level tribes have not seen in at least two years. He also may have neutralized a potentially powerful adversary as he runs for re-election.
The Palm Springs tribe agreed to pay 15 percent on any new machines, all those over 2,000. But on its existing slots, Agua Caliente negotiated a fixed fee of $23.4 million over the life of the compact, which expires in 2030. The fee equals 10 percent of the tribe's $234 million net win from slots in 2004.
Because it is a fixed amount, the $23.4 million will represent a declining percentage of net win as Agua Caliente's business grows. For last year, the percentage had fallen to roughly 9 percent, the tribe's attorney told a Senate committee Wednesday.
In contrast, Quechan's compact starts at 10 percent for the first $50 million in slot revenue and tops out at 25 percent at $200 million.
Ewiiaapaayp, a small San Diego County tribe that hopes to build its first casino on the Viejas reservation, agreed to pay 15 percent on its first $200 million in slot revenue and 25 percent after that.
Quechan attorney Stidham said the Schwarzenegger administration initially told the tribe it was getting a lower rate – 2 percent less than the state sought from others – because the tribe had such a large membership with many pressing needs.
Stidham reminded the administration of that last week and asked the governor's office to trim the state's cut from Quechan to reflect Agua Caliente's deal.
“They weren't willing to do that,” he said.
Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians
Location: 32,000-acre reservation includes parts of the cities of Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage and Cathedral City Members: 400
Existing gambling: two casinos in Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage with 2,000 slot machines
New compact: would permit up to 5,000 slots in three casinos
---
Quechan Indian tribe
Location: 45,000-acre reservation stretches from Imperial County into Arizona. Tribe is based in Fort Yuma, Ariz. Members: 3,600
Existing gambling: two casinos, one in California, one in Arizona, with about 800 slots
New compact: would permit up to 1,100 slots in a new casino adjacent to Interstate 8
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.