Life is often about trade-offs. But few have these kinds of advantages.
Million Dollar Trust Funds
The family that makes up the small Big Lagoon Rancheria tribe (24 members) in Humboldt County gets $1,100,000.00 annually, tax free, from trust funds provided by California’s established gaming tribes – no expectations, no strings attached.
Virgil Moorehead, family patriarch, and those behind his $168,000,000 casino plans for Barstow (750 miles away) characterize the gaming tribes as “greedy;” even though he gets more than $45,000.00 per year for each adult member of his tribe from those other tribes.
Wouldn’t you like to get $45,000 per year for each adult member of your extended family, free and clear, without any expectations?
Million Dollar Historic Hotel & Sports Club
Outside of the trust funds the Big Lagoon Indians get from other tribes, the Moorehead clan has wisely taken advantage of grant programs and other o
pportunities to establish commercial ventures in Hum-boldt County.
Among those businesses, they own and manage the historic Hotel Arcata, reportedly generating $925,000.00 per year with an assessed value at $1,066,629.00; and they have announced plans for a commercial gym and fitness facility. The tribe has recently reported its intent to purchase 16 more acres of prime coastal property adjacent to its 20-acre reservation.
Given those circumstances, the Rancheria family’s combined annual revenues are certainly well over $2,000,000.00; a significant percentage (the $1.1 million trust funds) tax free and no property taxes on their 20-acre prime coastal reservation lands. 
The median household income in California is $48,000.00 per year, before taxes; nationally it’s $43,000.00. The Census Bureau indicates the poverty level is $16,000.00 per year for similar sized households.
$192,000 Household Incomes
Following the Census Bureau’s household model, if there were ten similar “households” on the Rancheria (and according to actual Census records there are), their equivalent average household incomes would have to be $192,500.00, before taxes; that’s more than four times greater than the average California family and twelve times greater than the national poverty level.
And on top of that, the Moorhead clan is blessed to make their homes near one another, on 20-acres perched on the beautiful Big Lagoon shoreline and within walking distance of the Pacific Ocean – their opportunity: nearly priceless, given most equivalent properties along the California coastline have already been subdivided by private interests or taken into public trust.
Billionaire Casino Partners
Now consider this, Forbes Magazine estimates the Detroit Family (Mike & Marian Ilitch and their seven children) bankrolling the Big Lagoon Rancheria’s casino plans are worth $1.5 billion, own multiple homes, sports teams, private planes and more.
Who’s “Poor;” and who’s “greedy?”
Moorehead and operatives for his Detroit casino syndicators characterize the Big Lagoon Rancheria as “poor” and without opportunity. They say, the other tribes are “greedy.”
You be the judge.
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