Bishop - Grant funds to the rescue

8-9-2008

After two years of hard work by the volunteers of the Olancha Cartago Fire Department and thanks to grants from the Indian Gaming Special Distribution Fund, the department’s First Out Rescue Unit vehicle is up and running and on the job.
The department first applied for grants when its old rescue unit was taken out of service in 2005. The volunteers were awarded $15,000 in 2006 and an additional $10,000 in 2007.
“It was this funding that made it possible for us to build this new piece of equipment,” Olancha Cartago Fire Chief Steve Davis said. “Without these grant funds, construction of this truck would not have been possible.”
The Paiute Palace Casino is the primary local contributor to the Indian Gaming Special Distribution Fund.

Outside the Paiute Palace on Monday, Davis said the truck had been in service for five days and already had two calls under its safety belt. The late-model GMC diesel was purchased used as was a separate chassis and bed and transformed in the spare time of every member of the 17-volunteer department.

Outside the Paiute Palace Casino are (l-r) Firefighter Katrina Haughton, Casino General Manager Gloriana Bailey and Olancha Cartago Fire Department Chief Steve Davis, in front of the department’s new First Out Rescue Unit with acknowledgements printed on the side of the new truck, “Grant Funds Provided by the Paiute Palace Casino.” Photo by Mike Bodine

“At one point or another everyone did something,” Davis said of his team while leaning on the shiny yellow truck.
The truck will be used as it’s name implies, as a First Out unit, making the initial call to small vegetation fires, medical emergencies and car accidents. It is a rugged four-wheel drive to handle the rough, desolate terrain of the Olancha Cartago area.
“It has been a good year for the Olancha Cartago Fire Department,” Davis said. The new truck brings the department’s fleet total to nine. This year also saw the addition of a 4,000-gallon water tender, donated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power that was put through its initial paces during the recent Clover Fire. Chief Davis said he was grateful for the DWP contribution and to the Coso Operating Company, Coso Geothermal Project for donating plenty of firefighting hardware, including hoses, fittings and connectors to the department.
Casino General Manager Gloriana Bailey said she was pleased to see the money being used for such a good purpose. After a ride in the newly furbished truck, Bailey said she was very impressed how clean the truck was. “It doesn’t look custom built.”
According to Bailey, the Paiute Palace has made substantial contributions to the Special Distribution Fund with $143,987 in 2003-04 and rising to $288,574 in 2005-06.
The grant monies from fund are in accordance with tribal gaming compacts. Indian gaming tribes distribute a portion of their profits to the Special Distribution Fund which helps support tribes that do not have gaming and allows for grants to be made available to mitigate impacts in communities with tribal gaming.
The grants are dispersed based on specific criteria relating to impacts on communities with Indian gaming, such as increased traffic or demands on local police. Then, through a county-established committee composed of designated interest groups, such as business owners or county supervisors, proposals and requests are reviewed from city and county agencies and grant monies distributed according to need and impact.
Unfortunately, grants from the Indian Gaming Special Distribution Fund are no longer. In 1999 when tribes and the governor agreed on casino compacts, part of the agreement included tribal payment into the Special Distribution Fund, which includes the Revenue Sharing Trust Fund, RSTF, in exchange for slot machine licensing. The RSTF would make payments of $1.1 million to each California non-compact or non-gaming tribe.
In 2007, voters approved a compact with the Barona, Sycuan and Viejas Indians that would allow these tribes to make substantial payments into the state General Fund, but not the Special Distribution Fund. The stipulation is that the RSTF, payments to non-compact tribes, is a priority of the Special Distribution Fund. So, according to the new compacts, General Fund monies will be used to supplement the RSTF that will suffer due to the loss of major contributors to the Special Distribution Fund. This could creating a possible shortfall in the General Fund of $40 million. The Special Distribution Fund has declined dramatically from $147 million in 2006-07, to $109 million in 2007-08 and an estimated $49 million in 2008-09.
Citing a 2007 State Auditor Report that, “Local governments do not always use it (the Indian Gaming Special Distribution Fund) to mitigate the impacts of casinos,” Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed a $30 million appropriation from the Special Distribution Fund for local grants affected by tribal casinos.
However, according to the California Legislative Analyst’s Office, “Because grants would no longer be needed for casinos of several tribes with recent compacts, the Legislature should be able to appropriate smaller amounts for the grants in the future.”