Assembly committee hears briefing on Big Sandy Rancheria gaming compact; SB 49 to go to Assembly floor

Assembly Member Blanca Rubio, chair of the Assembly Committee on Governmental Organization, convened an informational hearing on a tribal-state gaming compact between Governor Gavin Newsom and the Big Sandy Rancheria of Western Mono Indians. The committee was briefed on the contents of a negotiated compact and on SB 49, the Senate bill to ratify that compact, but the committee did not take a formal vote.

The compact before the committee is substantially the same as a previously negotiated agreement that the federal Department of the Interior disapproved last year, Matthew Lee, senior advisor for tribal negotiations in the Governor’s Office, told the committee. Lee said the revised compact places two items explicitly within the compact’s text — certain California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) exemptions and a guarantee of exclusivity that state law already provides — to address the department’s stated bases for disapproval. “What we’ve done here is we have taken the compact that this body had previously seen. We have put those two items within the four corners of the compact to address Interior’s stated basis for disapproval,” Lee said.

Under the compact’s other unchanged terms, Lee said, the agreement includes worker protections such as a tribal labor relations ordinance and minimum-wage provisions, revenue sharing through a Revenue Sharing Trust Fund that redistributes gaming revenue to other tribes, a mechanism for the state to recover regulatory expenses, and distributions to local governments. The compact would allow up to 3,000 gaming devices across as many as two facilities; one facility could be located on the McCabe allotment, which Lee said the federal government concluded in recent years is eligible for gaming and is closer to the city of Fresno than the tribe’s existing reservation.

Elizabeth Hutchins, chairwoman of the Big Sandy Rancheria of Western Mono Indians, testified in support of SB 49 and described the compact as critical to the tribe’s long-term economic development. “SB 49 ratifies a new tribal state gaming compact that is very essential to the long term success of our tribe,” Hutchins said. She described the tribe’s ties to the Sierra Nevada region, noted trust land on the Rancheria and an additional parcel east of Fresno, and said the compact will help fund tribal programs and services. Hutchins also said the compact establishes an impact mitigation fund to support local law enforcement, emergency services and neighboring jurisdictions and thanked Senators Grove and Shannon and committee staff for advancing the legislation.

Rubio reminded attendees that the hearing was informational and that the Legislature cannot amend the compact’s terms. “No formal vote will be taken today,” she said, adding that SB 49 is the ratification vehicle and will be taken up later on the Assembly floor. The committee invited testimony from the principal negotiators — the Governor’s Office and the tribe — and heard none from members of the public during the public-comment period.

Next steps: SB 49 will proceed to the Assembly floor for consideration on a future calendar; the committee’s role at this hearing was briefing only. The compact remains subject to the ratification process specified by state law and Congress’s role under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, and earlier federal review by the Department of the Interior is noted in the hearing record.