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Oklahoma’s Tribes Unite Against a Common Foe: Their Cherokee Governor [1]
['Simon Romero', 'Graham Lee Brewer']
Date: 2020-02-20
Pointing to the growing economic sway of tribal nations in Oklahoma’s economy, money is at the heart of this dispute. The tribes paid $148 million in fees from casino operations to the state last year, 88 percent of which was earmarked for Oklahoma’s public schools, which rank among the most underfunded in the country.
Mr. Stitt, a Tulsa mortgage banker and conservative Republican, proposed that the tribes pay a much higher revenue rate to Oklahoma to operate their casinos, a move that tribal leaders have seen as an aggressive approach and a continuation of generations of broken agreements between the state and tribal governments.
The governor has maintained that the gaming agreements between the tribes and the state were set to expire on Jan. 1, and he had proposed a new compact to begin this year that would bring the revenue rate more in line with what casino operators pay in Arizona and Nevada. He warned that casinos would be operating illegally if a new agreement wasn’t signed, but operators said they believed the compact would automatically renew if new agreements were not made. Three tribes filed a federal lawsuit in December seeking clarity.
The 15-year compacts were signed in 2004. Because gaming was new to Oklahoma at the time, Mr. Stitt wrote in an op-ed for The Tulsa World newspaper, the tribes agreed to pay between 4 percent and 6 percent of their revenues for the exclusive right to operate in the state. He compared those rates with state-tribal compacts elsewhere in the country with fees between 20 percent and 25 percent.
Mr. Stitt declined several requests for interviews, and instead pointed to the op-ed, where he said he was governing “in the best interest of all 4 million Oklahomans,” for his reasoning behind the proposed increases. In a statement, Mr. Stitt added, “the door is open, and remains open” for negotiating a way to move forward.
The feud has spilled into everyday life for Oklahomans of many backgrounds who rely on casino proceeds to fund roads, public transportation, hospitals and schools. State officials have also privately complained that the issue has distracted the governor and slowed down unrelated state business, while prominent Republican allies have either publicly broken with Mr. Stitt or distanced themselves from him over the feud.
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[1] Url:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/us/kevin-stitt-tribal-nations-oklahoma-casinos.html
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