The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), which must approve or reject the Spokane Tribe’s proposal to build a casino on the west plains, has provided a public comment period to provide community feedback about the proposed casino of the Spokane Tribe. That public comment period is about to close, so it is imperative we work to ensure our federal delegation imparts our opposition to the BIA.
Before the BIA releases their final Environmental Impact Study (BIA) with their decision, we urge you to write letters to our federal delegation asking them to formally state their opposition to the BIA. This is our last chance to ask our elected representatives to speak on our behalf.
You can write a letter to our federal representatives at:
- Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers
- Spokane Office Address: 10 North Post Street, Suite 625, Spokane, WA 99201
- Phone: 509-353-2374
- Write Online: https://mcmorrisforms.house.gov/write-to-cathy1
- Senator Maria Cantwell
- Spokane Office Address: W. 920 Riverside, Ste 697, Spokane, WA 99201
Phone: 509-353-2507 - Write Online: http://www.cantwell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/email-maria
- Spokane Office Address: W. 920 Riverside, Ste 697, Spokane, WA 99201
- Senator Patty Murray
- Spokane Office Address: 10 North Post Street, Suite 600, Spokane, Washington 99201
- Phone: (509) 624-9515
- Write Online: http://www.murray.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contactme
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Our Take On The DEIS
The DEIS misrepresents the real threats this casino poses to our community, our state and Fairchild Air Force Base. Up until now our concerns have been dismissed by the Tribe and the people they’ve paid to speak for them, but now they can’t hide from the facts. It’s our turn to provide input and I urge residents around the region to submit comments. Tell the BIA we don’t want this casino and the harm it will cause our community. It would expand gambling and the problems that come with it, threaten Fairchild Air Force Base, harm our local economy, set a precedent for other Tribes to build off-reservation casinos, and leave local taxpayers holding the bag.
The DEIS claims that any impacts to Fairchild Air Force Base can be mitigated. This is untrue. The 2009 JLUS study outlines sensitive land use around the base specifying certain development should not be allowed in those areas, including hotels, motels and other public assembly venues like a casino. This standard is conspicuously missing from the DEIS.
Almost worse than what’s in the report, is what’s not. This report is inadequate if it’s meant to fully examine the potential harm to our community. It doesn’t examine the issues the community really cares about. It doesn’t speak to how this casino would threaten the character of our community and it doesn’t examine the full costs that the Spokane Tribe could transfer to local taxpayers. We don’t want to become Spo-Vegas. We want to attract family wage manufacturing jobs to the West Plains. That is how we’ll build our economy—not through a huge expansion of gaming.
To view the full DEIS document, click here.
To view our press release on the DEIS, click here.
Contact
For more information about Citizens Against Casino Expansion and its concerns with the Spokane Tribe’s proposed off-reservation casino or to sign your name to the growing list of business and community leaders joining the group, please write:
