Although the Northern California Estom Yumeka Maidu Tribe of the Enterprise Rancheria is waiting for the legislature to approve the compact it signed with Governor Jerry Brown so it can build a casino and hotel on 40 acres in Yuba County, there is sufficient opposition that it is not a slam-dunk.
The 1,000-member tribe was not able to persuade either of its local state legislators to carry the bill. One of them, Assemblyman Dan Logue, voted to oppose the casino when he was on the Yuba County board of supervisors. Instead, a Merced-area lawmaker introduced the bill as an amendment to an unrelated bill.
The tribe has been pushing its casino hotel since 2002. In 2006 the County took an advisory vote where those against the casino were 52.1 percent compared to 47.9 percent who supported it.
Bill Simmons, also a former Yuba County supervisor who served with Logue, supports the casino. He believes that because of the economy such a vote would have a different result if it were held today.
The casino is also the subject of several lawsuits from opponents, who claim that the land in question was never tribal land. However, the Bureau of Indian Affairs has already put the land into trust.
If the casino is built the tribe is committed to pay $5 million annually to Yuba County as mitigation for public safety and also $250,000 annually for public safety to the nearby city of Marysville.
If the compact were to be ratified, the National Indian Gaming Commission’s blessing would still be required before it could go into effect.
The earliest the compact could be taken up by the legislature is August.
