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Opinion editorials Handling of Pit Appeal Calls for a Time-Out |
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opinion editorialsThis editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by editorial page staff and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers
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Sunday, April 17, 2011
Off-Reservation Casino Needs Thorough Look
It seems like a good bet for both Jemez Pueblo and the southern New Mexico community of Anthony: An off-reservation Indian casino that brings revenue to a poor, remote tribe and jobs to a poor community searching for an economic driver.
Jemez officials and their project developer present those positives as the only issues for federal and state officials to consider in signing off on the project.
They are important positives and should be given considerable weight, especially in view of the fact state lawmakers have already debated and embraced Indian and racino gaming as public policy.
But approval of off-reservation gambling has more than the potential of improving two rural communities in desperate need of infrastructure, housing, services and jobs. It also has the potential of spreading the negative impacts of gaming while opening the state to casino operations from other tribes — and not just those based in New Mexico.
The Bush administration denied Jemez's application in 2008; tribal leaders say the Obama administration is more receptive and will hear the merits of the nearly decade-old plan for a $72 million casino on Interstate 10 some 300 miles south of the pueblo.
New Mexico already has 22 tribal casinos, five racinos and an estimated 36,000 to 108,000 problem gamblers. In 2008 it almost added an operation by the Fort Sill Apaches, a tribe that had seen its Oklahoma bingo parlor stagnate and proposed opening up, then expanding, on I-10. Federal regulators rejected the plan, and then-Gov. Bill Richardson dispatched state troopers to protect travelers from Indian bingo.
With the Fort Sill plan dead, Jemez would be the first to have a casino in New Mexico not on tribal lands. So it's vital federal and state officials go beyond the well-known economic benefits and social problems of gaming to ask some hard, long-term questions.
Will it prompt other Fort Sill-like tribes to try to relocate in New Mexico, which has plenty of freeway frontage? Will it prompt New Mexico's poorest tribes that are unlucky enough to be located far from populous areas and highway off-ramps to try to cash in on a new or relocated operation far from home?
And if a $40 million trust fund, $500K a year and 950 jobs paying an average $28K is such a deal, why did the Anthony Town Council barely OK the project 3-2, the Doña Ana County Commission pass it by the same narrow margin, and the state senator for the area, Sen. Mary Kay Papen, come out against it?
How those residents and local governing bodies feel this time around will be important in consideration by the Interior Department and Gov. Susana Martinez, who essentially would have veto power if the feds approve Jemez's trust-land proposal.
Martinez was district attorney in Las Cruces, so she will have a firsthand feel for the proposal and its potential impacts — good and bad.
This casino seems like a good bet for the entities involved. But the questions it raises for the state must be answered before it's considered a sure thing.
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