Tribes sued for slot taxes

Wednesday, June 14, 2000 | 10:38 a.m.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- State Attorney General Patricia Madrid filed a lawsuit Tuesday against New Mexico tribes and pueblos that own casinos to make them pay the state 16 percent of slot-machine revenues.

The tribes have argued the 16 percent revenue sharing payment, required by compacts the tribes signed with the state, is illegally high and have refused to pay.

Tribes being sued include the Jicarilla Apache and Mescalero Apache Tribes, and the pueblos of Acoma, Isleta, Laguna, Pojoaque, Sandia, San Felipe, San Juan, Santa Ana, Taos and Tesuque, Madrid said.

Tribal leaders formally announced in April they would no longer make gambling payments to New Mexico unless a federal judge ordered them to do so. The announcement came after the Legislature rejected a proposed new compact in March. The rejected proposal was a 20-year pact with a revenue sharing rate of 7.75 percent of slot proceeds.

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