Woodland has gone three for three! Last night the Port of Woodland unanimously joined the School District and the City in adopting resolutions opposing the proposed Cowlitz casino-resort.
In addition to Woodland, organizations now having expressed opposition to the proposed casino include:
City of Vancouver
City of La Center
Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce
La Center North County Chamber of Commerce
Battle Ground Chamber of Commerce
Woodland Chamber of Commerce
Identity Clark County
Enterprise/Paradise Point Neighborhood Association
Chinook Indian Tribe
American Land Rights Association
Fish First
Stand Up for Clark County Citizens (disbanded)
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
Exaggerations, misrepresentations plague Cowlitz casino submissions
The Cowlitz gambling syndicate has skewed the federal environmental review process for its proposed casino by underestimating potential revenues and overestimating the tribe’s needs—ostensibly to help ensure the selection of the site at Interstate 5’s La Center interchange.
According to a study released Thursday by ECONorthwest,[1] the misinformation stems in part from the syndicate’s failure to adjust revenue projections for changes made to the Washington state-tribal gambling compacts last spring.
The Cowlitz Tribe’s preliminary Final Environmental Impact Statement (PFEIS), released last spring after the new compact was approved, states that the proposed casino would produce $415 million in annual revenue. However, Thursday’s ECONorthwest report, taking the new state-tribal compact into account, finds that a similar facility would have annual gaming revenues of $611 million.
Additionally, the compact changes would add significantly to the profitability of a casino at Vader, in the tribe’s aboriginal homeland.[2] The PFEIS argues that a northern site would not bring in enough revenue to fulfill the tribe’s needs.
The state-tribal compact, formalized in March 2007 after lengthy negotiations with the Spokane Tribe and extended to Washington’s other tribes, relaxes several rules—increasing the hours of casino operation, the size of some wagers and the number of video slot machines allowed, and eliminating the requirement for casinos to phase the machines in gradually. (The old compact would have limited the Cowlitz casino to 475 machines its first year, but the new compact would allow it to open with 2,500 machines.)[3] The Cowlitz Tribe has yet to finalize its compact with the state but can expect at least 3,000 video slot machines and possibly up to 4,000.[4]
The new compact also adds substantially to the amount of money that would be made by Salishan-Mohegan, the casino development and management company formed by the Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut and Cowlitz Tribe member David Barnett.
Revenue understated, need overstated
While the syndicate has been understating how much revenue a Cowlitz casino would make, it has been vastly overstating how much the Cowlitz Tribe needs.
The PFEIS sets the tribe’s unmet needs at $113.6 million a year, a number that ECONorthwest writes in an April report “appears inflated especially in light of the overall affluence of Cowlitz Tribal members.” (The 2000 Census ranks the 1999 median income the highest of all tribes based in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, and No. 18 among 495 tribes reporting.)[5]
The cost of the tribe’s unmet needs relies heavily on health care and social services expenses, and according to an April 17 review by ECONorthwest, the PFEIS inflates the cost to provide these services to the Cowlitz Tribe at least fourfold, compared with other groups’ measures. ECONorthwest determined the average overstatement of this unmet need to be $62.7 million.[6]
[1] ECONorthwest is an economics consulting firm headquartered in Eugene, Ore., with offices in Portland, Seattle and Boulder, Colo. Its client list includes Indian tribes, casinos, government agencies, educational institutions, municipalities, private enterprises and more. These reports were funded by and submitted to the Bureau of Indian Affairs by the card rooms located at La Center, Wash., as commentary on the Preliminary Final Environmental Impact Statement (PFEIS) and submissions related to the Cowlitz fee-to-trust applications.
[2] ECONorthwest, “An Analysis of the Management Agreement with the Cowlitz Casino,” 15 November 2007.
[3] ECONorthwest, “An Analysis,” 9.
[4] ECONorthwest, “An Analysis,” 7.
[5] ECONorthwest, “An Initial Review of the Cowlitz Final Environmental Impact Statement,” 17 April 2007, 2.
[6] ECONorthwest, “An Initial Review,” 3-5.
[7] ECONorthwest, “An Initial Review,” 3-5.
[8] Data from the American Indian Health Commission for Washington State, ECONorthwest, “An Initial Review,” 3.
[9] Data based on the spending on health care and social assistance in Washington State, ECONorthwest, “An Initial Review,” 4.
[10] Money from Oregon tribal gaming used to cover health and social services for tribal members, ECONorthwest, “An Initial Review,” 4.
[11] Funding sources include Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance and Indian Health Services, ECONorthwest, “An Initial Review,” 3.
[12] ECONorthwest, “An Initial Review,” 5.
[13] ECONorthwest, “An Analysis,” 10.
[14] ECONorthwest, “An Initial Review,” 6.
[15] ECONorthwest, “An Initial Review,” 6.
[16] ECONorthwest, “An Initial Review,” 6.
[17] ECONorthwest, “An Initial Review,” 12.
According to a study released Thursday by ECONorthwest,[1] the misinformation stems in part from the syndicate’s failure to adjust revenue projections for changes made to the Washington state-tribal gambling compacts last spring.
The Cowlitz Tribe’s preliminary Final Environmental Impact Statement (PFEIS), released last spring after the new compact was approved, states that the proposed casino would produce $415 million in annual revenue. However, Thursday’s ECONorthwest report, taking the new state-tribal compact into account, finds that a similar facility would have annual gaming revenues of $611 million.
Additionally, the compact changes would add significantly to the profitability of a casino at Vader, in the tribe’s aboriginal homeland.[2] The PFEIS argues that a northern site would not bring in enough revenue to fulfill the tribe’s needs.
The state-tribal compact, formalized in March 2007 after lengthy negotiations with the Spokane Tribe and extended to Washington’s other tribes, relaxes several rules—increasing the hours of casino operation, the size of some wagers and the number of video slot machines allowed, and eliminating the requirement for casinos to phase the machines in gradually. (The old compact would have limited the Cowlitz casino to 475 machines its first year, but the new compact would allow it to open with 2,500 machines.)[3] The Cowlitz Tribe has yet to finalize its compact with the state but can expect at least 3,000 video slot machines and possibly up to 4,000.[4]
The new compact also adds substantially to the amount of money that would be made by Salishan-Mohegan, the casino development and management company formed by the Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut and Cowlitz Tribe member David Barnett.
Revenue understated, need overstated
While the syndicate has been understating how much revenue a Cowlitz casino would make, it has been vastly overstating how much the Cowlitz Tribe needs.
The PFEIS sets the tribe’s unmet needs at $113.6 million a year, a number that ECONorthwest writes in an April report “appears inflated especially in light of the overall affluence of Cowlitz Tribal members.” (The 2000 Census ranks the 1999 median income the highest of all tribes based in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, and No. 18 among 495 tribes reporting.)[5]
The cost of the tribe’s unmet needs relies heavily on health care and social services expenses, and according to an April 17 review by ECONorthwest, the PFEIS inflates the cost to provide these services to the Cowlitz Tribe at least fourfold, compared with other groups’ measures. ECONorthwest determined the average overstatement of this unmet need to be $62.7 million.[6]
This debunks the PFEIS’s argument that income from a casino-resort at the Vader site would not fulfill the tribe’s unmet needs. According to the PFEIS, a casino in the Vader area would have an annual return of approximately $77 million. When ECONorthwest subtracted the average overstatement of unmet needs in health care from the total claimed unmet needs, it found that a casino at Vader would exceed the tribe’s unmet needs by more than $26 million.[12]
Moreover, the $77 million return cited in the PFEIS was calculated according to terms of the old gaming compact. According to ECONorthwest, with the new compact allowing Washington casinos to operate 24 hours a day and use machines similar to those at Spirit Mountain Casino in Grand Ronde, Ore., Vader’s location 20 minutes closer to Portland than Spirit Mountain would give it a competitive advantage over the Portland market.[13]
Benefit of Vader casino underestimated
The PFEIS fails to consider how a casino located farther to the north, in the tribe’s historic land base and near the majority of its current members, would benefit the tribe. ECONorthwest writes,
Vader would be a better location from which to offer tribal members good jobs and for providing government services to tribal members in greatest need—the elderly, frail, disabled, poor, and young—that have the least mobility and would benefit from the center of tribal government being nearer to their existing homes—most of which are well over an hour north of La Center.[14]
According to figures from a 2006 letter from the Cowlitz Tribe’s enrollment officer, more than twice as many Cowlitz Tribe members live within two counties of Vader as within two counties of La Center.[16]
Area impacts overlooked
ECONorthwest also takes on the PFEIS’s analysis of socioeconomic impacts and points specifically to the document’s assumption that only five new households would move to La Center, Ridgefield and Woodland, the three cities in the PFEIS primary study area—not a realistic assumption given that with 3,151 employees, the casino would be the largest employer in the county.
This led to what ECONorthwest terms “the most peculiar finding of the PFEIS”: that only two students would be added to each of the three school districts in the primary study area, La Center, Ridgefield and Woodland.[17] This conclusion does not square with trends ECONorthwest has observed at other casinos, including the Grand Ronde’s and the privately owned La Center card rooms, nor does it follow common sense.
The bottom line
ECONorthwest’s reviews find the PFEIS to be a deeply flawed document that misrepresents the actual situation to decision-makers and the public, and obscures the opportunities available at a northern site. Paired with significantly understated profits, the overstated unmet needs have been used to preclude consideration of an alternate casino site near Vader, in the tribe’s true aboriginal homeland.
Citizens Against Reservation Shopping wants the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs to insist the tribe’s consultants produce a supplemental Environmental Impact Statement that would provides accurate data and analyses, and consider the possibility of a casino site in the tribe’s true homeland.
Moreover, the $77 million return cited in the PFEIS was calculated according to terms of the old gaming compact. According to ECONorthwest, with the new compact allowing Washington casinos to operate 24 hours a day and use machines similar to those at Spirit Mountain Casino in Grand Ronde, Ore., Vader’s location 20 minutes closer to Portland than Spirit Mountain would give it a competitive advantage over the Portland market.[13]
Benefit of Vader casino underestimated
The PFEIS fails to consider how a casino located farther to the north, in the tribe’s historic land base and near the majority of its current members, would benefit the tribe. ECONorthwest writes,
Vader would be a better location from which to offer tribal members good jobs and for providing government services to tribal members in greatest need—the elderly, frail, disabled, poor, and young—that have the least mobility and would benefit from the center of tribal government being nearer to their existing homes—most of which are well over an hour north of La Center.[14]
According to figures from a 2006 letter from the Cowlitz Tribe’s enrollment officer, more than twice as many Cowlitz Tribe members live within two counties of Vader as within two counties of La Center.[16]
Area impacts overlooked
ECONorthwest also takes on the PFEIS’s analysis of socioeconomic impacts and points specifically to the document’s assumption that only five new households would move to La Center, Ridgefield and Woodland, the three cities in the PFEIS primary study area—not a realistic assumption given that with 3,151 employees, the casino would be the largest employer in the county.
This led to what ECONorthwest terms “the most peculiar finding of the PFEIS”: that only two students would be added to each of the three school districts in the primary study area, La Center, Ridgefield and Woodland.[17] This conclusion does not square with trends ECONorthwest has observed at other casinos, including the Grand Ronde’s and the privately owned La Center card rooms, nor does it follow common sense.
The bottom line
ECONorthwest’s reviews find the PFEIS to be a deeply flawed document that misrepresents the actual situation to decision-makers and the public, and obscures the opportunities available at a northern site. Paired with significantly understated profits, the overstated unmet needs have been used to preclude consideration of an alternate casino site near Vader, in the tribe’s true aboriginal homeland.
Citizens Against Reservation Shopping wants the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs to insist the tribe’s consultants produce a supplemental Environmental Impact Statement that would provides accurate data and analyses, and consider the possibility of a casino site in the tribe’s true homeland.
[1] ECONorthwest is an economics consulting firm headquartered in Eugene, Ore., with offices in Portland, Seattle and Boulder, Colo. Its client list includes Indian tribes, casinos, government agencies, educational institutions, municipalities, private enterprises and more. These reports were funded by and submitted to the Bureau of Indian Affairs by the card rooms located at La Center, Wash., as commentary on the Preliminary Final Environmental Impact Statement (PFEIS) and submissions related to the Cowlitz fee-to-trust applications.
[2] ECONorthwest, “An Analysis of the Management Agreement with the Cowlitz Casino,” 15 November 2007.
[3] ECONorthwest, “An Analysis,” 9.
[4] ECONorthwest, “An Analysis,” 7.
[5] ECONorthwest, “An Initial Review of the Cowlitz Final Environmental Impact Statement,” 17 April 2007, 2.
[6] ECONorthwest, “An Initial Review,” 3-5.
[7] ECONorthwest, “An Initial Review,” 3-5.
[8] Data from the American Indian Health Commission for Washington State, ECONorthwest, “An Initial Review,” 3.
[9] Data based on the spending on health care and social assistance in Washington State, ECONorthwest, “An Initial Review,” 4.
[10] Money from Oregon tribal gaming used to cover health and social services for tribal members, ECONorthwest, “An Initial Review,” 4.
[11] Funding sources include Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance and Indian Health Services, ECONorthwest, “An Initial Review,” 3.
[12] ECONorthwest, “An Initial Review,” 5.
[13] ECONorthwest, “An Analysis,” 10.
[14] ECONorthwest, “An Initial Review,” 6.
[15] ECONorthwest, “An Initial Review,” 6.
[16] ECONorthwest, “An Initial Review,” 6.
[17] ECONorthwest, “An Initial Review,” 12.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Woodland City Council, School Board Oppose Casino
Opponents of the proposed Cowlitz casino at La Center got a “two-fer” last night in Woodland where both the city council and school board passed resolutions of opposition. That brings to three the number of municipal neighbors registering formal opposition with the federal government to the resort-casino complex.
Earlier this year both the cities of Vancouver and La Center approved similar resolutions asking the Secretary of the Interior to reject the tribe’s trust application for land in Clark County as long as plans include a casino.
The Woodland City Council approved the opposition measure by a vote of 3 to 2, while the school board’s vote was unanimous. While neither resolution is a part of the formal Bureau of Indian Affairs approval process and are regarded as position statements only, the highly politicized nature of the process could make the opposition statements increasingly important as time goes by.
In addition to Woodland, organizations now having expressed opposition to the proposed casino include:
City of Vancouver
City of La Center
Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce
La Center North County Chamber of Commerce
Battle Ground Chamber of Commerce
Woodland Chamber of Commerce
Identity Clark County
Enterprise/Paradise Point Neighborhood Association
Chinook Indian Tribe
American Land Rights Association
Fish First
Stand Up for Clark County Citizens (disbanded)
Earlier this year both the cities of Vancouver and La Center approved similar resolutions asking the Secretary of the Interior to reject the tribe’s trust application for land in Clark County as long as plans include a casino.
The Woodland City Council approved the opposition measure by a vote of 3 to 2, while the school board’s vote was unanimous. While neither resolution is a part of the formal Bureau of Indian Affairs approval process and are regarded as position statements only, the highly politicized nature of the process could make the opposition statements increasingly important as time goes by.
In addition to Woodland, organizations now having expressed opposition to the proposed casino include:
City of Vancouver
City of La Center
Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce
La Center North County Chamber of Commerce
Battle Ground Chamber of Commerce
Woodland Chamber of Commerce
Identity Clark County
Enterprise/Paradise Point Neighborhood Association
Chinook Indian Tribe
American Land Rights Association
Fish First
Stand Up for Clark County Citizens (disbanded)
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