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JUNE 14, 2000

On Tuesday, New Mexico state Attorney General Patricia Madrid filed suit against all 12 of the state's gaming tribes.

However, Madrid did not ask that the casinos be closed while the suit takes place, which she earlier suggested.

The tribes named are the Jicarilla Apache and Mescalero Apache Tribes and the Pueblos of Acoma, Isleta, Laguna, Pojoaque, Sandia, San Felipe, San Juan, Santa Ana, Taos and Tesuque.

As of April, all 12 tribes had either refused or stopped making payments to the state under gaming compacts signed in 1997. The compacts require the tribes to share 16 percent of their slot revenues with the state, which the tribes contend is illegal under the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA).

The tribes had hoped a new compact that reduced the rate to 7.75 percent would resolve their dispute, but the state legislature rejected the proposal at the end of March.

Both the tribes and the state believe a lawsuit is the only way to settle the issue. "We have concluded we now need to file this lawsuit to protect the state's interests," said Madrid.

"The state continues to illegally tax the tribes. It's time for a federal court to provide us some protection from the state," said Pojoaque Pueblo Governor Jacob Viarrial in a prepared statement.

If the state wins, they could force the tribes to close until they make back payments. If the tribes win, just the revenue sharing provision of the compacts, which expire in 2006, could be declared invalid and they would continue gaming, causing the state to receive no money at all.

In December of 1999, then US Attorney John Kelly told state lawmakers they had little chance of winning a lawsuit. The tribes have long held the compacts would not stand up to a legal challenge.

In January, when negotiations for new compacts were underway, the Department of the Interior sided with the tribes, saying they would not support any proposal by the state that would include back payments.

The New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration estimates that the tribe's owe $67 million to the state. According to the state Taxation and Revenue Department, the tribes' casinos pull in $300 to $400 million a year in net revenues, which represents only a small portion of the state's $40 billion economy.

Filed in the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico, the case is The State of New Mexico v. Jicarilla Apache Tribe, et al.

Get the Lawsuit:
State of New Mexico v. Jicarilla Apache Tribe, et al.

Relevant Links:
From the Department of Interior: STATEMENT OF SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR BRUCE BABBITT ON THE NEW MEXICO GAMING COMPACTS (DOI. August 23, 1997)