Support for Barstow’s Indian Gaming Compacts Remains Stalled

Barstow Casino agreements negotiated by Gov. Schwarzenegger in 2005 were rejected by powerful Assembly Members in 2006; absent the significant sea change in Sacramento promised by proponents last year, the agreements are set to expire soon.

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Jan. 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Agreements for two Indian Casinos in Barstow given a greenlight by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005 failed to generate interest in the Senate and were rejected by powerful members of the state Assembly in 2006.

Last year, a Detroit-based casino syndication team headed up by Marian Ilitch vowed to win approval of their scheme for dual Indian casinos in Barstow when the California Legislature reconvened this month in Sacramento. In reality they agreements remain stalled.

In lieu of anything substantive to signal true progress in the California Legislature for their Barstow scheme, Ilitch’s team has been issuing shallow press releases this week -- an attempt to convince reporters and others that they are committed and making progress; and also pose a veiled threat to the legislature. But no one new is independently backing up their claims or providing any other substantive “proof.”

As the 2007 legislative session gets underway, Ilitch and company find themselves at the same place they were a year ago – holding aging agreements, absent an author or the introduction of legislation to serve as the vehicle for approval of those agreements and without crucial public commitments from any additional Sacramento lawmakers to support their scheme.

Among other triggers, the agreements Schwarzenegger has autographed are of no value unless ratified by the legislature soon. Failing to win ratification last year, the Ilitch crew has just months to make it happen.

The Ilitch organization, its two tribal partners and three Sacramento lobbying firms all failed to make any substantive progress but they are successfully blocking any other parties from making progress on alternative plans for casino development in Barstow – the halfway point between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The Ilitch organization or some related party funneled between $350,000 and $500,000 to the three lobbying firms this past year but major descrepancies in reporting make it difficult to tell exactly who and how much was paid.

Wes Chesbro, former state Senator, the author legislation to approve their Barstow scheme in the 2006 session. Chesbro’s term expired in 2006 and term limits prohibited him from seeking re-election. Ilitch and her Native American partners, the Big Lagoon Rancheria and Los Coyotes Bands of Indians, lost their only true legislative champion and were left without an author for legislation.

Including Chesbro, the Ilitch casino syndication had only won public commitments of support for their agreements from six legislators. Three of those were obligatory “co-authors” of Chesbro’s legislation because their districts, like Chesbro’s, include parties to the agreements (either the City of Barstow or Big Lagoon Rancheria). Two others indicated their support publicly after Chesbro and his original co-authors introduced the legislation.

The agreements were heard before the Senate Governmental Organization (GO) Committee last March. It was clear at the hearing Senators did not approve of the agreement but rather than take a public vote and sink the agreements at that time, the GO Committee concluded the hearing without any action or future direction.

The legislative time clock was ticking and absent any progress in the Senate, lobbyists for the Ilitch team worked with Chesbro to have legislation shepherding the agreements gutted and the agreements slipped into other legislation in the Assembly at the eleventh hour desperately hoping to find support their. The Assembly GO Committee scheduled a hearing on the agreements late in June and unlike their colleagues in the Senate, the Assembly committee members voted to reject the agreements. The agreements have made no progress since then despite the spin coming out of MotorCity.