Miwok tribe hires company to perform economic study
Report to show casino impact
Miwok tribe hires company to perform economic study
n By jessica quandt Staff Writer
Hollister – The tribe of Miwok Indians hoping to build a casino in San Benito County have hired a private company to perform an economic impact report, which will detail the financial effects the casino would have on the area, according to California Valley Miwok Project spokeswoman Nicole Ratcliff.
The findings could be made public as early as January in a community meeting, Ratcliff said. The tribe has selected Alan Meister, who has previous experience preparing economic studies for other tribes, to create the report for the proposed Miwok casino off Highway 25.
“The economic study will provide a lot of the meat from tax impacts, employment, and crime,” said Miwok attorney Phillip Thompson.
The law does not require the tribe to conduct an economic study, but members want to show San Benito County residents the economic benefits they believe a casino would have on the community, Ratcliff said.
The tribe hopes Meister will have enough information from the report to present some of his findings at a meeting in Hollister in January, Ratcliff said. Residents would receive copies of the report ahead of time, and the meeting would serve as a chance for Meister to address concerns, she said.
Hollister Mayor Tony Bruscia said he assumes traffic, police, sewer and fire issues will be addressed in the economic report, but is more worried about other issues that can’t necessarily be predicted in a study.
“I don’t know if it’s something you can really quantify or measure, but the social and human impacts … needless to say, I think those would be the most important thing. You can build a highway or put more police in place, but you can’t help the guy who can’t pay his rent because he gambled it all away,” Bruscia said.
But Thompson said the tribe is looking to help people better understand all the benefits the tribe believes a casino would bring to the county.
“We’re here now and we are what we are, bottom line. But we hope to be able to answer questions more in-depth in the future,” Thompson said.
Project Manager Gary Ramos has estimated at that the casino would create between 1,000 and 2,000 jobs. The group has previously said the casino would be similar in size to the 66,000 square-foot, 1,700-slot machine Cache Creek casino in Yolo County, but Thompson said Monday it was too early for a concrete number.
But Casinos Represent A Poor Solution (C.R.A.P.S.) Chairman Steve Merrell said no matter what the results are or how many jobs a casino would create, locals shouldn’t be convinced the project would bring big bucks into San Benito County.
“In the experience of other counties that have gone this route, the studies have shown that it doesn’t have a positive impact on the county,” he said.
Miwok officials haven’t yet said how much the casino jobs would pay.
Crime is another issue San Benito County should be looking at in records from other counties with casinos, Merrell said. In one instance in Kings County, the home of The Palace Indian Gaming Center in Lemoore, 10 percent of the calls to the sheriff’s department in 2003 were directly related to the casino, according to County Sheriff Allan McClain.
Merrell said he was also skeptical of the tribe’s hiring a private firm: The Analysis Group, whose Los Angeles office Meister works in. Although the Analysis Group is a third party, Merrell doubts the report would be impartial, since Meister specializes in Indian Gaming.
According to Merrell, C.R.A.P.S. has been approached by a group willing to do a report for the anti-casino organization. He said he was sure this report would show a casino’s adverse effect on San Benito County, but his group will have to do some more fundraising before it can afford the fees.
