Kromm seeks options to fight casino
By Ian Thompson

FAIRFIELD -- Concerned over recent efforts to put a tribal casino in Solano County, Supervisor Duane Kromm went to the Bureau of Indian Affairs to get a better handle on what local governments can do.

Kromm accompanied the Fairfield City Council on its annual trip to Washington, D.C., earlier this week to lobby for various Travis Air Force Base and community issues.

Solano County supervisors were surprised last year when a proposal to put a tribal casino in Suisun Valley surfaced.

Supervisors reacted by adopting a policy opposing any casinos. Nothing has been heard of the proposed casino since.

Kromm split off from the Fairfield City Council group Tuesday to talk with the director of Indian Gaming in the bureau about land use issues and casinos.

"He was quite straightforward," Kromm said. "The ability of a tribe to get recognition to establish a casino is phenomenally difficult if there is local community opposition, which is good."

That refers to tribes who have no established reservation who are trying to buy land for a casino, Kromm said.

Strengthening the regulations would be a hard task with politically powerful forces on both sides - tribal casino supporters and local government supporters - holding each other to a stalemate.

Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Pinole, did tell Kromm she'd work with the Department of the Interior to ensure any agreements made between tribes and local governments would stay legally binding.

"This would give counties a normal say in the process," Kromm said of what he called "leveling the playing field" when it came to ensuring that a tribal casino followed county regulations.

Kromm's Washington visit occurred on the same day representatives from towns in 10 California counties hit Sacramento to ask Gov. Schwarzenegger to require tribes to compensate for the impacts the casinos have on traffic, crime and the environment.

The officials wanted Schwarzenegger to get tribes to pay what they called their "fair share" of taxes and comply with state environmental and land use laws.

Tribal representatives stated the casinos already have agreements with their communities to pay for the casinos' impacts.

Source: Daily Republic