Last tribes stop payments to New Mexico

Deborah Baker

Wednesday, April 26, 2000 | 2:29 a.m.

SANTA ANA PUEBLO, N.M. - Tribes will not make any more gambling payments to the state unless a federal judge orders them to, Indian leaders said Tuesday.

The stream of revenue from tribal casinos apparently dried up with the announcement by Santa Ana, San Felipe and Sandia Pueblos - the only tribes that were paying in full - that they have ended quarterly payments.

They were joined by Laguna Pueblo, whose 6-week-old casino would have made its first payment Tuesday.

The four tribes said they expect to be named as defendants, along with eight other tribes, in a lawsuit Attorney General Patricia Madrid says she will file next month in federal court.

Santa Ana Gov. Lawrence Montoya said tribal leaders had had "high hopes" that the Legislature would approve new gambling agreements last month and end a long, bitter dispute over payments to the state.

Instead, he said, "the forces of distrust, misunderstanding and insensitivity carried the day in the Senate," which rejected new compacts.

"The Legislature has made its choice," Montoya said at a news conference. "At least until the court rules, the state will have to do without Indian gaming revenue."

Only two other tribes, Acoma and Tesuque Pueblos, have been paying the state, and they were remitting just a fraction of what they owed. No checks were received from them on Tuesday by the state treasurer.

"In all likelihood there will be no further payments - and no partial payments as well," said Frank Chaves of Sandia Pueblo, a spokesman for the New Mexico Indian Gaming Association.

"There is no other option to resolve this issue. We tried and tried without success," Chaves said.

The state has collected nearly $67 million from tribes under the current compacts. Tribes that have refused to pay or have underpaid are estimated to owe about the same amount.

The state's share of casino revenue had been dwindling; it was just under $6 million in the last round of quarterly payments at the end of January.

Tribes objected even as they signed the compacts in 1997 that the required 16 percent of slot machine proceeds was so high it violated federal law.

Tribal leaders warned Tuesday that if they win in federal court and the 16 percent is invalidated, the Legislature will never again see a compact offer with terms as favorable to the state as the one rejected March 31 during a special legislative session.

"All New Mexicans should be saddened by this prospect. It could have been different," said Ernest Tenorio, chairman of the San Felipe Pueblo Gaming Enterprise Board.

The rejected proposal - the product of nine months of negotiations - was a 20-year pact with a revenue sharing rate of 7.75 percent of slot proceeds. Tribes in arrears would have had to make full back payments in order to sign it.

While all the tribes are expected to be named as defendants in the attorney general's lawsuit, one of them - Pojoaque Pueblo - asked Gov. Gary Johnson last week to open new negotiations on gambling compacts.

Pojoaque Gov. Jacob Viarrial said in a letter the tribe is ready to go to the negotiating table on its own, even while the lawsuit is under way.

Johnson administration officials have not said what they will do about the request.

"My current view is that starting that process again right now is really not likely to be productive," said Richard Hughes, a lawyer for Santa Ana Pueblo.

He said tribes put a lot of effort into the rejected compacts and came up with the best compromise they could.

"I don't think the tribes ... are prepared to make any larger concessions to attract more votes in the Senate," he said.

The four tribes that made the announcement Tuesday said they would put the quarterly payments into escrow while the lawsuit is pending.