As reported in the Albuquerque Journal this morning, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration and the Pojoaque Pueblo have approved a federal court decision to split up the sequestered roughly $10 million 60/40 that was put in a holding account after the pueblo signed the 2015 tribal gambling compacts in 2017.
Pojoaque Pueblo refused to sign the 2015 compacts, signed by all other gambling tribes, saying the governor did not negotiate in “good faith.” They protested the increase in revenue sharing from the previous compacts, and also wanted to allow 18 year-olds to gamble, alcohol to be served on the gambling floors, and the ability to cash welfare, Social Security and payroll checks.
The tribe fought legal battles in federal courts, but ultimately lost in 2017, and thereafter signed the 2015 compacts. In the two-year interim the tribe had been forced by the feds to put the disputed revenue sharing in a holding account until the dispute was resolved. The tribe argued that they needed the money for social programs and other tribal expenses, but the court ruled that the money would be split 40% for the tribes, and 60% for the state.
Governor Grisham’s chief counsel, Matt Garcia, was said to have conducted a risk assessment, and said that, “this outcome was undeniably most favorable for the state.”
Governor Lujan Grisham received about $11,000 from the pueblo in the recent gubernatorial election, as well as contributions during her two successful campaigns for the U.S. House of Representatives. Her representatives said that these donations had nothing to do with signing an agreement that returned over four million dollars of illegal gambling revenue to the pueblo.
The lesson learned here seems to be that if tribes fight the state long and hard enough, they are going to get a lot of what they want from the state. They certainly got a much better deal than the other tribes who paid their contracted revenue sharing to the state during those two years.
It’s time for the state to get out of the predatory gambling racket.