Tribal Business Alliance Members Remit $25 Million To State

Source: American Chronicle Website
By California Political Desk

The five California Indian tribes with amended gaming compacts today  remitted $25.2 million to the state as part of their annual payment to finance a transportation construction bond.

The latest quarterly payments by the tribes, all members of the California Tribal Business Alliance, bring the total of their payments  to the state to more than $126 million since the compact amendments took effect a year ago.

The member tribes of the Alliance will make additional payments on November 1 to the state’s general fund and to a special fund for sharing  gaming revenues with non-gaming and small-gaming tribes.

Those payments will bring the five tribes’ payments to the state for the first full year of operation of the amended compacts to more than $132  million.

It is the state’s intent to use the tribes’ collective annual bond payments of $100.8 million to sell a revenue bond of approximately $1  billion to relieve the state’s general fund debt to the Traffic Relief Congestion Fund and the Transportation Deferred Investment Fund.

The amended compacts are in effect until 2030. They are between the state and the Pala Band of Mission Indians, the Pauma Band of Luiseño  Indians, the Rumsey Band of Wintun Indians, the United Auburn Indian Community, and the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians.

Under the amended agreements, the tribes will pay the state at least $130 million per year for the next 25 years. The pacts also guarantee  increased protections for casino patrons and workers, the environment, and local communities.

The five tribes and the Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians formed the California Tribal Business Alliance in 2004 for the purpose of establishing alliances and partnerships with other mainstream, non-gaming business organizations, taking an interest in issues that  affect the quality of life in California, and developing mutually respectful government-to-government relationships with state and local  governments.