Senator Pat Wiggins (D-Eureka), principal author of SB 157, has indicated to the Eureka Times Standard that the bill is all but dead.
Eureka Times StandardSB 157 would ratify gaming compacts allowing two Indian tribes (Big Lagoon Rancheria and Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla and Cupeno Indians) and their Detroit casino developer Barwest to build side-by-side, off-reservation casino resorts in Barstow, Calif.
04.14.07
Casinos, Klamath, truck lengths, rail revival all on Wiggins' priority list
"...But the fate of another agreement, between the state and the Big Lagoon Rancheria for a casino in Barstow, doesn't look so rosy, at least for the time being, she said. ..."
Wiggins and project proponents held a press conference in January to announce the introduction of SB 157.
At that time there were two other legislators who had joined Wiggins, Senator Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield) and Assemblywoman Patty Berg (D-Santa Rosa).
Since then, proponents have failed to produce any other legislators willing to publicly endorse the bill. SB 157 was intended as a tool to win legislative ratification of gaming compacts the Governor's aides had negotiated in 2005.
Proponents have failed to produce any other sign that SB 157 had been making progress; instead they have joined with labor to attack compact agreements moving through the legislature for several established gaming tribes. Those compacts would allow expanded gaming at several existing locations on current reservation lands and would produce substantial new revenues for the State of California..
Another bill, SB 168, introduced in 2006 and authored by former Senator Wesley Chesbro, Wiggins' predecessor, failed to make it out of committee as well. Two legislators who supported that bill in the last session have failed to announce their support for SB 157: Assemblyman Bill Maze and Senator Leland Yee.
Mrs. Marian Ilitch, wife of Detroit Tigers baseball team owner Mike Ilitch, and Michael J. Malik, Sr. are the principals behind the Barwest syndication.
1 comment:
I would be very surprised if the state ratifies the compacts for Barstow's proposed Casino's. I doubt very seriously that Barstow will see their Casino hopes come to pass anytime soon. And even if by some miracle the state ratifies the compacts it has to go the DOI and there it will become even more obvious that Barwest and Barstow are banking on tribes that don't have a right to build in the High Desert. I guess Barstow should of stuck with a Tribe that had a right to build in Barstow instead of fallen into agreements with seedy people from outside the state.
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