Welcome to the Committee to Protect Doña Ana County newsletter. Many of you have been actively taking part in the fight against the proposed off-reservation casino at Anthony, NM. Others just joined our cause.
To all, a warm welcome. Remember, we update the latest events at our website — www.protectdonaanacounty.com — so be sure to bookmark the site and check in often. Now, on to the news.
Summer/Fall , 2006
It was two years ago , August of 2004, that Jemez Pueblo and developer Gerald Peters proposed an off-reservation scheme for Anthony, NM. But opposition to the plan has continued to grow, despite the constant drumbeat of misinformation distributed by the casino advocates. The Las Cruces Sun News recently repeated its opposition to the scheme in a succinct editorial:
“We don’t think the government should be in the business of creating official tribal lands that are hundreds of miles from the traditional lands where the tribe dwells.”
The Casino Economy
One of the main arguments casino advocates cite for their off-reservation reservation scheme is jobs. But Dona Ana County is not facing a jobs crisis. In fact, it is experiencing an economic boom with unemployment at near historically low levels. “economic boom”
Their casino would transfer money from existing businesses, crippling many of them and costing us jobs.
The one area where Dona Ana could stand improvement is income growth as
the jobs being created aren’t always high paying. But most of the casino jobs
would only pay $7 an hour, doing nothing to improve the one weak spot in the
area economy.
Dona Ana County needs to continue its economic development efforts and not
take a step backward by settling for low-wage, dead-end jobs that carry the false
promise of economic growth, but instead will cost jobs in other sectors of the
economy and do nothing to bring the high-paying jobs we all want.
Washington Action
On the legislative front , the House Resources Committee has approved a measure that we think would effectively end the Jemez-Peters scheme. It would require that pueblos such as Jemez prove that they have historical or geographic ties to the area they propose to place an off-reservation casino. Jemez Pueblo is nearly 300 miles from Anthony and during the two years it has pushed for the casino it has never argued it has such ties.
The bill has a long way to go through the legislative process, but many of our lawmakers in Washington have had enough and are working to close the loopholes that have permitted off-reservation casinos.
What's Next
The Bureau of Indian Affairs continues to compile information for a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the Jemez-Peters project. The Committee to Protect Dona Ana County submitted hundreds of pages of documents and questions asking that they be addressed in the DEIS. When the BIA completes the DEIS it has agreed to the Committee’s request to conduct a public hearing in Las Cruces so as many people as possible can comment.
No date has been set for that hearing, but we’ll keep you posted. Be sure to check our Website www.protectdonaanacounty.com and thanks for your continued support in opposing off-reservation casinos in our state.
www.protectdonaanacounty.com
