As of this writing, it has been more than 800 days since we submitted our Camp 4 Draft Cooperative Agreement to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. That’s more than two years of inaction on the county’s part. More than two years of refusing to speak with us to negotiate an agreement that would provide significant economic benefits to Santa Barbara County.

We know that one of the major objections of taking land into federal trust is the loss of property taxes. So one of the key features in our Draft Cooperative Agreement included our pledge to provide a payment in lieu of property taxes that would have resulted in a million dollars per year for Santa Barbara County.

We don’t know why there has been indecision from the county to even begin a dialogue on Camp 4. It couldn’t be because an agreement like this is untested or unusual. The Revenue Neutrality Agreement between the County of Santa Barbara and the City of Goleta exists — and it’s based on many of the same factors we are suggesting in our draft agreement.