{"id":2701,"date":"2008-01-07T15:58:00","date_gmt":"2008-01-07T21:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/01\/interior-department-rejects-anthony-casino-proposal\/"},"modified":"2008-01-07T15:58:00","modified_gmt":"2008-01-07T21:58:00","slug":"interior-department-rejects-anthony-casino-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/01\/interior-department-rejects-anthony-casino-proposal\/","title":{"rendered":"Interior Department rejects Anthony casino proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Department of the Interior has rejected a proposal by the Jemez Pueblo and Santa Fe<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> art dealer and developer Gerald Peters to build a casino in Anthony.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In a four-page letter dated Jan. 4, Carl J. Artman, assistant secretary for Indian affairs, wrote that the casino would not significantly improve the unemployment rate among members of the pueblo and might encourage reservation residents to leave their homes and travel 300 miles south to find work, so the \u201cnegative impacts on reservation life could be considerable.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Although the decision means the casino cannot be built, a spokesman for the Jemez said there may be an opportunity to improve and resubmit the application. You can read the department\u2019s rejection letter by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The spokesman said a statement from the Jemez was forthcoming but the pueblo had not received the letter. He said Peters would make no statement.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The proposal has been controversial. When news of the plan first became public in August 2005, Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino owner Stan Fulton waged a public campaign to try to buy opposition to the casino. Several legislators took Fulton<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s side after he paid political blogger Joe Monahan to help form the Committee to Protect Do\u00f1a Ana County<\/a>, which argued that allowing one off-reservation casino here would open the floodgates for many more.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Fulton<\/st1:city> also gained the support of several New Mexico<\/st1:placename> State<\/st1:placetype> University<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> officials when he changed a provision in his will so that the university would only get half ownership of his casino when he died if no other casinos existed nearby.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, residents of the poverty stricken community of Anthony organized and gathered several thousand signatures in support of the casino proposal with the help of a public relations campaign<\/a> waged by Peters. The Do\u00f1a Ana County Board of Commissioners worked out a deal with Peters, who would have operated the proposed casino, to provide services if the land was placed in federal trust, and also convinced Peters to make several promises, including hiring local workers and paying 100 percent of their health-care costs.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Such promises by Peters won over other public officials, including some lawmakers, but then-state Attorney General Patricia Madrid<\/st1:state> said Peters\u2019 agreement with Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> was illegal.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The pueblo stated in its application that its main goal was to locate the casino near a population center, arguing that the reservation is too remote and too close to other tribes that have already established casinos to successfully operate a casino on its Northern New Mexico<\/st1:place> land. The pueblo was aiming to generate revenue, not create jobs for tribal members.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Artman wrote that the pueblo didn\u2019t provide enough detail about its planned use of revenues from the casino for the department to weigh the expected benefits against the negatives of little job creation and possible encouragement of tribal members to move to Anthony and leave behind their tribal community.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Federal law allows off-reservation casinos only when the department agrees to place land in federal trust for that purpose. Before that happens, the department has to be convinced that the proposal is in the best interest of the tribe and has the support of the local community where the casino would be built. When the department approves such a proposal, it\u2019s then up to the state\u2019s governor to decide whether the casino can be built.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Only three off-reservation casinos have ever been approved and built in the United States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>.<\/p>\n

\n

Update, 5:35 p.m.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In a new release, Jemez Gov. Paul Chinana said the Interior Department issued new \u201cguidance\u201d regarding trust applications for gaming on Thursday and then, on Friday, sent letters to a number of tribes denying pending applications. He said the reasons cited for denial are nearly identical in most cases.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThe form letter ignores the underlying premise of the Jemez\/Anthony project, which is that the revenue generated at the casino helps the pueblo fund a tailor-made jobs and training program to create jobs and services at the pueblo to meet their unmet needs,\u201d the release states. \u201cAt the same time, the project provides needed jobs for Anthony and Do\u00f1a<\/st1:PlaceName> Ana<\/st1:PlaceName> County<\/st1:PlaceName><\/st1:place> residents.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI can tell you that for Jemez, the off-reservation casino would be a positive impact because our jobs plan is different and better because it benefits the pueblo and Anthony,\u201d Chinana said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Chinana said the new \u201cguidance\u201d is the most recent in a series of changes the department has made during the last year, and the pueblo has worked to address the changes each time.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThe new guidance raises a host of complicated issues that the pueblo\u2019s lawyers are just beginning to analyze,\u201d Chinana said. \u201cUntil the lawyers have fully reviewed the Department of Interior\u2019s new, retroactive guidance and the apparent blanket rejection of pending applications based on boilerplate reasons, we really can\u2019t intelligently comment further.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Department of the Interior has rejected a proposal by the Jemez Pueblo and Santa Fe art dealer and developer Gerald Peters to build a casino in Anthony. In a four-page letter dated Jan. 4, Carl J. Artman, assistant secretary for Indian affairs, wrote that the casino would not significantly improve the unemployment rate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2701\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}