...For representatives of tribes pushing to build casinos in Barstow, Thursday's news made them optimistic that the state Senate Organizational Committee would schedule informational hearings for them.
Schwarzenegger approved gaming compacts for the Big Lagoon Rancheria and Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians in September 2005, but the compacts must be ratified in order for them to proceed with building the casinos, estimated to bring 3,700 new jobs to Barstow and generate $6million a year in city revenue.
"We think the actions today to move on reservation compacts over to the Assembly is a good sign,' said Tom Shields, spokesman for Los Coyotes. "We look forward to the opportunity for an information hearing in the Senate with a vote to send us over to the Assembly as well."
Tom Shields wouldn't know a "good sign" if he saw one! He's been saying this since the Los Coyotes original proposal was rejected outright by Governor Schwarzenegger in March 2004.
These Barwest tribes have already been down this same route before, almost one year ago. The Senate GO Committee held a hearing on the Compacts in March 2006 but refused to take up any action on that bill. An aide to committee Chairman Dean Florez told the SB Sun at that time that the bills were as good as dead. (SB Sun, "Gaming bill pulled from State Senate.")
The author of last year's failed legislation, former Senator Wes Chesbro, was forced to make use of some administrative loophole that pulled the agreements out of one bill and slipped them into another in order to make it into the Assembly at the 11th hour. When the Assembly GO Committee held a hearing, members voted solidly to reject these exact same agreements; and there has been little progress by Barwest since. (SB Sun, "Tribal Compacts Tossed")
2 comments:
The whole Barstow/Barwest affair is just getting sadder and more pathetic as each passing day goes by. I have little doubt that unless there is a major shakeup that Barwest will be beating this dead horse for many more years to come. To bad Barstow's leaders wanted to get greedy and go with a developer and a tribe that they knew had slim to no chance of getting a casino in the High Desert.
splixx,
thanks for your continued interest.
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