Yuba supes, tribe reveal
casino-hotel agreement
MARYSVILLE 12/11/02 (YSN) -- Yuba County would rake in an estimated $73 million in payments and fees over the next 16 years, according to the terms of a tentative agreement worked out for a proposed tribal casino-hotel operation, officials reported Wednesday.
County supervisors are expected to vote whether to accept the agreement with the Estom Yumeka Maidu tribe at a special meeting 6 p.m. this coming Tuesday, Board Chairman Al Amaro said.
The brief six-day window of opportunity to read and analyze the 16-page agreement has angered opponents of the casino project.
Opponents allege the $90-million casino project is being hurried through the approval process in order to stymie opposing arguments and to allow Amaro to cast a key vote for it before he departs the board.
"It's a railroad job. It takes (the board) longer to approve a speed bump in your neighborhood than it has taken on the casino," said Supervisor-elect Dan Logue.
The special casino meeting is the last meeting the board is expected to hold before Jan. 6, when Logue is expected to be sworn into office to replace Amaro, a board clerk confirmed.
Amaro said he wanted to vote on the issue because of the amount of work he has put in on the project, which calls for a seven-story hotel with gaming rooms, restaurants and "ancillary facilities."
Amaro declined to say which way he expected to vote on the issue, but said the majority of constituents he talked to supported the casino.
He emphatically denied the board was forcing the issue along. "We've been negotiating this for five months," he said.
The Oroville-based tribe -- also known as the Enterprise Rancheria -- first brought its plan to the board in July, and a sub-committee of supervisors has been working out the proposed agreement ever since.
The tribe claims to be landless and, if approved, the project may turn out to be the first reservation-with-casino to be created in out of whole cloth, Logue alleged.
"All other Indian casinos were built one existing reservations. This one is off-site. If it's approved, you'll see Indian casinos cropping up in Sacramento, San Francisco and other big cities," said Logue, who spoke as a member of Citizens for a Better Way, a group local business leaders opposing the casino.
Under the terms of the agreement, the county would support the salel 40 acres of a 900-acre sports-entertainment commercial zone for the tribe to construct a casino resort complex it would rule as a sovereign nation.
In return, the tribe would pay the county a one-time development fee of $700,000 and another $800,000 in lieu of taxes in its first year of operation. The in-lieu fees would cover the cost of law enforcement and other services the county would provide to the tribe, according to the agreement.
The tribe would also pay for or furnish its own fire protection services for the casino-hotel complex, according to a summary prepared by County Administrator Kent McClain.
The second year of operation the tribe would pay the county $1 million. The amount would then increase each year until it reached $5 million in the sixth year, according to the agreement.
From there on out the amount would rise annually in line with a 4 percent cost price index formula, the agreement stated.
Altogether, the county would reap a total of $72.8 million in revenues over the first 16 years, McClain projected.
Logue and others fear that, once up and running as a sovereign, money-making nation, the tribe would expand unchecked into other enterprises that would compete with nearby stores and harm the county's overall economy.
"They'll buy more land and put up big-box stores and cut into already established businesses," Logue predicted.
But according to the tentative agreement, the tribe would promise "to limit its sovereignty" and not acquire additional "contiguous lands" without first getting separate agreements with the county.
Many support the casino because of the estimated 900 new prevailing-wage jobs it is expected to create.
"It would be good for the people of my district," said Supervisor Mary Jane Griego, in whose district the casino would be built.
Amaro also declined to predict the outcome of the expected vote. "It could be approved. It could be continued," he said.
casino-hotel agreement
MARYSVILLE 12/11/02 (YSN) -- Yuba County would rake in an estimated $73 million in payments and fees over the next 16 years, according to the terms of a tentative agreement worked out for a proposed tribal casino-hotel operation, officials reported Wednesday.
County supervisors are expected to vote whether to accept the agreement with the Estom Yumeka Maidu tribe at a special meeting 6 p.m. this coming Tuesday, Board Chairman Al Amaro said.
The brief six-day window of opportunity to read and analyze the 16-page agreement has angered opponents of the casino project.
Opponents allege the $90-million casino project is being hurried through the approval process in order to stymie opposing arguments and to allow Amaro to cast a key vote for it before he departs the board.
"It's a railroad job. It takes (the board) longer to approve a speed bump in your neighborhood than it has taken on the casino," said Supervisor-elect Dan Logue.
The special casino meeting is the last meeting the board is expected to hold before Jan. 6, when Logue is expected to be sworn into office to replace Amaro, a board clerk confirmed.
Amaro said he wanted to vote on the issue because of the amount of work he has put in on the project, which calls for a seven-story hotel with gaming rooms, restaurants and "ancillary facilities."
Amaro declined to say which way he expected to vote on the issue, but said the majority of constituents he talked to supported the casino.
He emphatically denied the board was forcing the issue along. "We've been negotiating this for five months," he said.
The Oroville-based tribe -- also known as the Enterprise Rancheria -- first brought its plan to the board in July, and a sub-committee of supervisors has been working out the proposed agreement ever since.
The tribe claims to be landless and, if approved, the project may turn out to be the first reservation-with-casino to be created in out of whole cloth, Logue alleged.
"All other Indian casinos were built one existing reservations. This one is off-site. If it's approved, you'll see Indian casinos cropping up in Sacramento, San Francisco and other big cities," said Logue, who spoke as a member of Citizens for a Better Way, a group local business leaders opposing the casino.
Under the terms of the agreement, the county would support the salel 40 acres of a 900-acre sports-entertainment commercial zone for the tribe to construct a casino resort complex it would rule as a sovereign nation.
In return, the tribe would pay the county a one-time development fee of $700,000 and another $800,000 in lieu of taxes in its first year of operation. The in-lieu fees would cover the cost of law enforcement and other services the county would provide to the tribe, according to the agreement.
The tribe would also pay for or furnish its own fire protection services for the casino-hotel complex, according to a summary prepared by County Administrator Kent McClain.
The second year of operation the tribe would pay the county $1 million. The amount would then increase each year until it reached $5 million in the sixth year, according to the agreement.
From there on out the amount would rise annually in line with a 4 percent cost price index formula, the agreement stated.
Altogether, the county would reap a total of $72.8 million in revenues over the first 16 years, McClain projected.
Logue and others fear that, once up and running as a sovereign, money-making nation, the tribe would expand unchecked into other enterprises that would compete with nearby stores and harm the county's overall economy.
"They'll buy more land and put up big-box stores and cut into already established businesses," Logue predicted.
But according to the tentative agreement, the tribe would promise "to limit its sovereignty" and not acquire additional "contiguous lands" without first getting separate agreements with the county.
Many support the casino because of the estimated 900 new prevailing-wage jobs it is expected to create.
"It would be good for the people of my district," said Supervisor Mary Jane Griego, in whose district the casino would be built.
Amaro also declined to predict the outcome of the expected vote. "It could be approved. It could be continued," he said.
<< Home