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Tribe Offers County $100 Million Deal For The Casino Plan May 12, 2003
The Coast Miwok Indians are offering Sonoma County payments that could exceed $100 million to sweeten reaction to the tribe's plans for a casino in the undeveloped bay lands near Sears Point.
In a 10-point pledge of cooperation distributed to local officials, the Miwoks promise to fund social services, pay the full cost of law enforcement and improve roads related to the proposed casino on traditional tribal lands.
No dollar figure is pledged, but Miwoks consultant Chris Lehane said it would match or exceed $100 million, multiyear deals tribes have reached with other California counties. He said a revenue-sharing deal would "certainly be one of the biggest in the state." Government officials from Sonoma and Marin counties are torn between a desire to fight the development of casinos and going for a piece of the multimillion-dollar action.
They decry the impact of casinos and gambling crowds on roads, law enforcement and social services. But officials, nonetheless, are reluctant to pursue compensation from the three tribes that may someday reap $450 million a year from Sonoma County gaming houses.
"Why negotiate with something you don't want in your community?" county Supervisor Paul Kelley said, explaining why the county broke off talks with the Dry Creek Pomos, who opened the North Bay's first casino last year in the Alexander Valley.
Pomo and Coast Miwok leaders say they are open to sharing the wealth of the burgeoning casino industry, which earns $3 billion to $5 billion a year in California. Tribes in some other counties have agreed to give millions to local government.
Yolo County and the Rumsey band of Wintun Indians reached what both sides hailed as a historic agreement last year, with the tribe paying more than $100 million over 18 years as a condition for expanding its casino.
In Placer County, the United Auburn Indian Tribe, which is building a megacasino off Interstate 80 near Rocklin, has agreed to pay for five sheriff's deputies and spend more than $1 million a year on programs, including fire protection and open-space acquisition.
Station Casinos of Las Vegas, which is building the $215 million Placer County casino, is also putting up the money for the proposed Coast Miwok casino on part of a 2,000-acre site surrounding Lakeville Highway and Highway 37 at the south end of Sonoma County.
Nationwide, Indian gaming generates more than $4 billion for the federal government, $1 billion for the states and $50 million for local governments through taxes and revenue-sharing agreements, according to Ernest Stephens Jr., chairman of the National Indian Gaming Commission, a federal regulatory agency.
The Miwoks' revenue-sharing offer also has gotten a wary response from officials in neighboring communities, including Sonoma and Petaluma. Only the city of Cloverdale, which is cooperating with another band of Pomo Indians, and the Geyserville Fire Protection District, which is talking to River Rock's operators, are currently seeking a share of casino money.
"It's a dicey situation," Petaluma City Councilman Mike Healy said, describing the choice between fighting and collaborating with the tribes.
The five entities that would be most affected by the Lakeville casino -- Sonoma and Marin counties and the cities of Sonoma, Petaluma and Novato -- may unite to address the project, Healy said following a meeting of the mayors and council members association last week.
But the goal isn't necessarily to talk dollars with the tribe, which is officially known as the Federated Indians of the Graton Rancheria. "I think the question is whether the cities and counties want to do everything we can to stop the project," Healy said.
Local officials are in near-unanimity in opposing the Coast Miwok gaming house, as were 400 people who packed a town hall meeting last week in Sonoma.
The tribe is launching a publicity campaign, mailing copies of its 10-point pledge to the public. The 582-member tribe also plans six public meetings in June to listen to local concerns, Lehane said.
The scale of the casino, including the building size and number of slot machines, will be determined by the results of those meetings, he said. Indian casinos are currently allowed up to 2,000 slot machines, which the state estimates will earn about $180 million a year.
Tribes and at least one independent analyst said the state estimates of Indian gaming revenue are too high. Tribal leaders report revenue totals only to the National Indian Gaming Commission, which doesn't release individual tribe totals.
Gov. Gray Davis is seeking $1.5 billion from the gaming tribes to help offset the state's budget deficit, offering to raise the slot machine cap in return. Before mapping out their strategy, Healy said local agencies need a better idea of their legal position.
He said if it seems the Lakeville casino can't be stopped "no matter what we do, that puts it in a different light." The Dry Creek Pomos, meanwhile, say that despite the rebuff by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, a revenue-sharing pact still is possible.
During the previous negotiations, Steinhoff said the Pomos thought they had met the county's demands on a "multimillion-dollar, multiyear deal" but the county refused to enter into an agreement.
Supervisor Kelley said the county suspended the revenue-sharing talks pending resolution of various issues, including fire safety standards and the tribe's right to run a casino. But the tribe didn't wait for a resolution, forging ahead with construction and the opening of the casino. That left the county unwilling to negotiate.
"If you think something is illegal or inappropriate, why have an agreement that legitimizes it?" Kelley said. River Rock Casino has contributed an undisclosed amount to one of the two funds established by the state with gaming tribes, according to Steinhoff. The state funds are established to share gaming revenue with tribes that do not have casinos, or have casinos with fewer than 350 slot machines.
There are 107 recognized tribes in California, 51 of which are engaged in gaming. State records show that River Rock's Dry Creek Pomos have paid $1.9 million into the revenue-sharing fund in the past year -- a requirement for receiving slot machine licenses -- and received at least $521,000 from the fund before the casino's opening.
Now that the casino is operating, the tribe is no longer eligible to receive payments from the fund, Steinhoff said. Gaming tribes have paid more than $75 million into the state fund since 2000 and the money has been dispersed to the eligible tribes, according to California Gambling Control Commission records.
Gaming tribes have paid an additional $44 million into another state fund, which is awaiting appropriation by the Legislature, the commission said. Critics have faulted Davis for granting gaming compacts to 61 California tribes without requiring any revenue sharing with state or local governments.
Connecticut, with the richest revenue-sharing pact in the nation, is
expected to reap $400 million from Indian gaming this year.
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