California | Legislation | Opinion

Rick Farinelli: Lawmaker wrong to sponsor anti-Indian casino bill

Monday, May 16, 2016

Rep. Jeff Denham (R-California) with World War II veterans in Washington, D.C. Photo from Facebook

Rick Farinelli, the chairman of the board of supervisors in Madera County, California, asks Rep. Jeff Denham (R-California) to withdraw his name from H.R.5079, the California Compact Protection Act. The bill prevents the Bureau of Indian Affairs from approving or otherwise allowing Class III gaming on lands held in trust for the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians:

For more than 12 years the North Fork Rancheria has diligently pursued its gaming project as specifically allowed by federal law and prevailed through every local, state and federal administrative review and approval. For the past four years, the tribe has overcome every legal challenge put forth by wealthy gaming tribes and their investors intended to delay or diminish the project. Now, at the 11th hour, this unprecedented and cynical legislative maneuver seeks to undo all this work and merely add to the already enormous costs incurred by the tribe and community.
This last-minute attempt to change the rules that have applied to other California tribes for more than 20 years will not remove the tribe’s land in Madera from being in trust nor will it remove the tribe’s right to conduct gaming on that land. By denying the North Fork Rancheria the right to operate Class III gaming, HR 5079 will simply force the tribe to operate Class II gaming. That change kills jobs and economic opportunities by preventing the investment that accompanies the “highest and best” economic use of the land, jeopardizes local agreements and non-gaming tribe payments as well as worker and customer protections required by secretarial procedures, undermines state participation in the regulation of gaming, retroactively penalizes a tribe and community that followed all existing rules, unjustly removes a reasonable, fair legal remedy for bad-faith dealings and upends 30 years of established federal Indian gaming law to the detriment of tribes across the nation.
Madera County has seen the enormous benefits tribal-government gaming can bring to a community when done right. Sadly, we’ve also experienced the economic costs of lost jobs and revenues caused by out-of-control greed and politics. We vastly prefer the former scenario, as represented by the North Fork project. Our region desperately needs new jobs and development and this project offers financial rewards for both the county and state.

Get the Story:
Rick Farinelli: Denham shouldn’t support bill to limit Madera casino project (The Modesto Bee 5/15)

Tribal Leader Opinions on H.R.5079, the California Compact Protection Act:
Maryann McGovran: Don't be fooled by efforts of 'wealthy' tribes (5/13)
Claudia Gonzales: Off-reservation gaming fuels attacks on tribes (5/13)

Bureau of Indian Affairs Documents for Enterprise Rancheria:
Press Release | Fact Sheet | Two-Part Determination Letter

Bureau of Indian Affairs Documents for North Fork Rancheria:
Press Release | Fact Sheet | Section 20 Determination

Federal Register Notices:
Indian Gaming (October 22, 2013)
Land Acquisitions; North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians of California (December 3, 2012)
Land Acquisitions; Enterprise Rancheria of Maidu Indians of California (December 3, 2012)