I have written about the proposed Tohono O’odham (TO) casino and its impact on Glendale too many times to count. The other day a thought occurred to me. We all know that Glendale is in a financial mess. Its debt burden has prevented the construction of so many much needed facilities such as a western branch library and has caused the cuts in service to residents’ quality of life.
We often hear Councilmember Alvarez complain about service cuts and the on-going lessening of basic infrastructure maintenance. Yet she is all too willing to support the construction of the proposed casino in the name of jobs. Realistically the job numbers touted by the TO are highly inflated and everyone seems to ignore the stipulation that 25% of them must go to Native Americans.
Has anyone considered the financial impacts to a city already struggling financially? I think not.
Several years ago senior Glendale staff presented a cursory assessment of the financial effects of the casino. It was made clear that a new water treatment facility would be required to service the intense demand for water that would be created by the casino and its ancillary uses. The construction of such a water facility is upwards of $70 million. Who would pay for it? Certainly not the Tohono O’odham. The persons paying the construction bill would be water ratepayers through an increase in water rates.
Then there is the issue of public safety. While a TO reservation would have its own tribal police to handle issues within the reservation it would be Glendale’s police and fire that would respond outside the reservation boundaries. At the very least, Glendale taxpayers would have to bear the costs of an increase in personnel and could experience delayed response times.
Lastly there are transportation costs. Streets adjacent to the reservation may need improvement to handle the increased traffic that will occur 24/7. There may be a need for upgraded traffic signals, signage and upgrades to the city’s Intelligent Traffic System.
For all of those who support the coming of the TO casino, do you still want the casino if it means that you have to pay more for your water provided by the city? For all of those who support the coming of the TO casino, do you still want the casino if it means that public safety response times get longer as Glendale’s public safety personnel deal with a major traffic accident on adjacent streets or respond to a heart attack victim on the reservation? For all of those who support the coming of the TO casino, do you still want the casino if it means that instead of resurfacing or improving your street the money is used to improve or maintain streets to accommodate the increased traffic adjacent to the reservation?
You know, of course, that because of reservation status, the TO pay no taxes of any kind – no federal taxes, no state taxes, no county taxes and no Glendale taxes. If you were counting on increased sales tax revenue from the casino to offset these new financial burdens to the city’s General Fund, you can forget it. It’s not going to happen.
There are those like Councilmember Sherwood that believe Glendale can negotiate reimbursement for its added financial burden to support the casino from the TO. Do you really think the TO will shell out $70 million for a new water treatment facility or pay the ongoing costs of an increase in public safety personnel or pay millions for new or upgraded street improvements?
Even if a deal is struck, how can you trust people who violated agreements and the trust of their sister Tribes or kept secret its purchase of land for 7 years? If they renege on any kind of agreement with Glendale how will those who have complained about the costs of law suits feel about yet another law suit to get the TO to honor an agreement with Glendale?
Please don’t regurgitate that the TO are required to give a small portion (8%) of their revenue to non-profits throughout the state. That presupposes that the TO will give their entire portion to non-profits in Glendale and ignore those in the Tucson area (site of their real reservation). Not going to happen. None of that money can go to Glendale’s General Fund to offset the new financial demands created by the proposed casino.
For every action there is an equal reaction. It’s the age old law of unintended consequences. While you may support the proposed casino because it will “create jobs,” are you willing to place further financial burdens on a city already under financial stress? Are you willing “to put your money where your mouth is” and to pay more for your water, deal with longer public safety response times and watch your streets deteriorate even further? I’m not.
© Joyce Clark, 2014
FAIR USE NOTICE
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which is in accordance with Title 17 U.S. C., Section 107. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Section 107 of the US Copyright Law and who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use,’ you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
you ask …
Do you think the Glendale City Council fully understands the issues that come before them?
Yes – 4% ( 2 votes )
No – 96% ( 44 votes )
You forgot a third option ….
Totally Clueless –
Golly Joyce, you’re still mouthing the same tired false allegations against the casino:
1. Where is it written that Glendale MUST provide the infrastructure for the casino? They’ll need a new water treatment plant to service the casino? Really? Directly across Northern is the city of Peoria who has openly offered to provide those amenities. In any event, you are wrong, TO will most certainly pay for whatever is needed.
2. Half of Northern belongs to Peoria. So why does Glendale have to provide all the traffic solutions? Probably 90% or more of the traffic will come from and go back via the101 right next to the casion. Where and why is all that extra police and fire duty needed there?
3. Why is your estimate of jobs that will be created better than the TO’s? But your continual harping that 25% of those jobs must go to Native Americans is actually very racist. Why does that bother you so much? There are lots of Native Americans living in Glendale and surrounding areas – I have a wonderful Native America family living across the street from me. They need jobs too. They buy automobiles, food,, clothing etc – all those wonderful things that create sales tax revenue that Glendale craves to fund their, and incidentally what you voted for, sports agendas.
4. You’re slipping Joyce. You forgot to mention the need to protect those oh so very innocent, naive high school kids a mile away. And what about your early claim that the casino buffet would cause restaurants for miles around it to close? LOL.
Well, well, well, if it isn’t Harold Stoetzer,
I haven’t had any inane rants from you since I left council. Harold, your lack of knowledge about this issue is positively embarrassing. I see that you have blindly bought into the Tohono O’odham/Alvarez/Chavira rhetoric. I find this surprising from a guy who becomes positively hysterical about every penny Glendale spends.
1. Glendale does not have to provide water to a proposed reservation. The TO can:
a. drill a well on their property. This will probably be time consuming; jumping through all of the state and federal water regulations and costly.
b. ask Glendale for water provision
c. ask Peoria or some other entity for water provision
None of these entities are required to do so. If Glendale does provide water it will be costly to current rate payers of water.
2. Years ago municipalities created a mechanism for shared boundary streets. Camelback Road, Glendale’s southern boundary street is administered and maintained by Phoenix. Northern Avenue, Peoria’s southern boundary street is Glendale’s responsibility. Due to the Valley’s automatic aid protocol, Glendale’s police and fire facilities located at 83rd Avenue and Bethany is the closest available unit and would be the first to be asked to respond.
3. From the extensive research I have done and in reviewing other casino construction projects, the estimate of job creation for the TO proposed casino is estimated at around 750 construction jobs. These jobs may or may not, be filled with in state or out of state construction workers. I suspect you have done no independent research.
As usual, when you have no good argument, you fall back on the race card.
4. I can point to countless studies that show that the crime rate, especially robbery, increases within a mile of a casino. I can also show other studies that refer to “displacement.” People have a constant in terms of disposable income. The proposed casino, offering another alternative in the form of subsidized, cheap meal prices, will drain anywhere from 10% to 20% of existent restaurants’ income.
You will note that as a citizen and not an elected official I am no longer constrained by “political correctness” and can give you as good as I get. Keep in mind one of my favorite quotes is, “I hate to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person.” Harold, you have been unarmed for quite some time.