Tribes Considering Backing Labor on Referendums

The Pala of San Diego County and United Auburn, a Northern California tribe, are considerjoining organized labor and horse racetracks to help bankroll ballot measures seeking to overturn the recently approved compacts. No ballot measure has been submitted, but a private poll done for tribes that was released last Friday suggests the compacts could be in trouble. Two other polls – one public, one private – conducted earlier this year reached the same conclusion. The battle against the four very wealthy tribes who have new deals that will run 23 years would be expensive with predictions in the $80 million range.

A spokesman for Pala and United Auburn, said other tribes also are considering taking on the four big tribes – Sycuan, Pechanga, Agua Caliente of Palm Springs and Morongo of east Riverside County.

“All I can say is good luck,” said Adam Day, government liaison for Sycuan. “We've done polling. We've communicated with our neighbors . . . we feel we have a proven track record operating games in an honest and ethical way.” Likewise, Pechanga Chairman Mark Macarro said his tribe is ready for any challenge. “We will do what it takes to protect our agreement,” Macarro said in a prepared statement.

Referendum supporters have a daunting task with only 86 days left to collect nearly 434,000 valid signatures for each of four bills that ratify the compacts.

So why would these tribes oppose the new compacts? The compacts would allow the four tribes, all of which have 2,000 slot machines, to operate some of the biggest casinos in the world. Sycuan and Agua Caliente could have 5,000 slots each, and Pechanga and Morongo could have up to 7,500 each. Agua Caliente also could build a third casino.

The 2004 compacts negotiated by Pala and United Auburn permit unlimited slots for a graduated fee that increases with the number of machines. In contrast, the pending compacts collect a percentage of net win – about 9 percent on existing machines, 15 percent on those over 2,000 and 25 percent for any over 5,000.

Alison Harvey, executive director of the tribal business alliance, said the new fee structure encourages expansion and leaves other tribes at a competitive disadvantage. Pala is 8 miles from Pechanga, which enjoys a better, freeway-close location. As a result, Pala and other casinos in the area benefit from Pechanga's overflow – those gamblers who couldn't get a machine during busy times at the Temecula resort. A number of Coachella Valley casinos – those operated by Cabazon, Twentynine Palms, Augustine and Soboba – are in similar situations further up road from Morongo and Agua Caliente.

Economics may not be Pala's only motivation. Nearly a decade ago, the tribe negotiated what was then the state's first comprehensive gambling compact, an agreement with then-Gov. Pete Wilson that was intended to be a model for all tribes in the state. But Pechanga, Morongo and Agua Caliente rejected the “Pala compact” as too restrictive. The three tribes, like many others in California, were operating illegal casinos at the time, courts ruled. Agua Caliente went further, financing a referendum against Pala's compact. The measure qualified for the March 2000 ballot, but failed to overturn the compact when it was largely overlooked on a ballot that included Proposition 1A, the constitutional amendment that legalized Nevada-style casinos on California reservations. At the time, Pala had no casino. The tribe depended on income from a gravel pit and an avocado orchard. “Pala had absolutely no money, they were dirt poor, and Agua was the richest tribe in the state,” said David Quintana, political director of the tribal business alliance. “Pala has money now.”

A poll conducted for the tribal business alliance by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research found strong public support for Indian gambling generally, but sentiment sharply divided over the expansion that the new compacts would bring. “The poll results demonstrate that if the new compacts were to face a referendum and appear on the ballot . . . they would face a difficult time passing,” said Ben Tulchin of the polling firm. In June, a Riverside Press-Enterprise poll found two-thirds of the local population – where Indian casinos enjoy particularly strong support – opposed to further gambling expansion. A private poll done for the racetracks a few months earlier produced similar results.

But Macarro and Sycuan's Day said their internal polling continues to show solid public support for Indian gaming. “We have tremendous faith in the voters of California,” Day said. “They've supported us not once but twice overwhelmingly, and that's a reservoir of support that we will never take for granted and we respect tremendously.”

Representatives of labor and the tracks declined to say yesterday when the referenda might be filed.

“Everybody is clear that if a decision is not made within the next 72 hours that in fact a decision will have been made by default,” said Jack Gribbon of the casino workers union UNITE HERE. “I'm sanguine that we are going to move forward.”

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