Tribes willing to consider changes to compact with New Mexico

Deborah Baker

Sunday, March 19, 2000 | 10:20 a.m.

SANTA FE - Indian tribes are willing to consider changes to their most recent offer for a new gambling agreement, Gov. Gary Johnson's office has announced.

Johnson's office received a letter Friday from the tribes requesting to meet with David McCumber, the governor's lawyer and negotiator, no later than Wednesday.

McCumber was trying to reach tribal representatives to set up a meeting, according to Johnson's spokeswoman, Diane Kinderwater.

The letter was the tribes' response to a legislative committee's final recommendations, which were delivered to them this week.

"After looking carefully at the committee's suggestions we are of the opinion that it would be worthwhile to meet with you to discuss them further," said the letter, which Kinderwater said was signed by various tribal leaders.

The Legislature's Committee on Compacts recommended 18-year agreements under which tribes would pay the state 8.5 percent of their slot machine proceeds initially, 8 percent after they complied with certain oversight requirements, and 7.5 percent after June 30, 2012.

The committee also recommended other changes. The letter did not specify which of the proposed compact's provisions the tribes were willing to discuss, Kinderwater said.

For more than four months, the legislative committee has been bouncing proposed changes back and forth with the tribes and the governor's office.

The committee's latest recommendation is final. By law, the tribes could accept some or all of the proposed changes, or decide instead to stick with their previous offer: 22-year compacts with a 7.5 percent revenue sharing rate.

In either event, the committee must foward the final document to the Legislature, which can approve or reject it, but cannot change it.

Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Sandel, D-Farmington, has said he intends to hold a committee meeting just before the special legislative session. No date has yet been announced for the session but it's expected to be the last week in March.

The tribes in their letter said they want to be sure that their willingness to consider possible changes "will in no way jeopardize the possibility of such a (legislative) vote," Kinderwater said.

Indian casinos are now operating under 1997 compacts that require tribes to pay the state 16 percent of their slot machine proceeds. The tribes contend the payments are illegally high, and most aren't making them.

The tribes and the legislative committee have already agreed that any tribe that wanted to sign new compacts with the lower rate would first have to pay the state what it owed in back payments at the 16 percent rate.