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Two years have passed since the proposal for an off-reservation Anthony casino first cropped up in Doña Ana County, stirring much political wrangling and a public opinion war between the project's critics and backers.
The clamor has quieted in recent months, leaving some wondering about the status of the Jemez Pueblo's proposal.
So where does the project stand?
It's in limbo, awaiting a final evaluation by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs and the outcome of a Congressional bill that could halt the project altogether.
Santa Fe art dealer Gerald Peters and the Jemez Pueblo northwest of Albuquerque first announced the project in August 2004.
Casino sponsors say an application for the facility is making headway and new legislation won't necessarily harm the project, while opponents contend the casino proposal is languishing.
The Jemez Pueblo has highlighted potential economic impacts of a casino, saying it would employ about 950 people with an annual payroll of about $28 million. Casino critics argue the project will cost other businesses revenue because spending would be redirected from them to the casino.
A measure cleared a U.S. House committee in July that could stop the casino proposal. The bill would limit off-reservation casinos and allow applications in the federal pipeline to continue only if they meet certain criteria. Those include showing "geographical, historical and temporal" ties to the land where a casino has been proposed.
The Jemez Pueblo has said it has historical ties to the area. It doesn't, however, have an obvious presence today. A temporal connection is a "modern-day connection to the land," said Brian Kennedy, spokesman for the House resources committee.
The Jemez Pueblo is roughly 300 miles from the proposed casino site.
Kennedy said though he didn't know specifics about the Jemez proposal, it appears on the surface to be the type of project House Bill 4893 attempts to restrict.
"It does sound as though that tribe would be disqualified under this legislation," he said.
Kennedy said the Bureau of Indian Affairs would be charged with determining whether a casino request met the new criteria, if the bill passes.
The bill is expected to reach the House floor sometime in September, Kennedy said, though it hasn't been scheduled for consideration yet by House leaders.
Denise Greenlaw Ramonas, Peters' chief of staff, said she has spoken with several former Indian Affairs officials who agree that the bill's language isn't clear.
"I'm not sure anyone knows exactly what that language means," she said. "I think that if this provision becomes law, there will need to be clarifications as to what it means."
Joe Monahan, spokesman for the Committee to Protect Doña Ana County, said the proposed legislation is a sign of a national sentiment against off-reservation casinos that didn't exist two years ago when the Jemez Pueblo first made its proposal.
"Public opinion has turned decisively against off-reservation schemes, and you see that everywhere you look," he said.
Should the bill clear the House, leaders would still have to reconcile it with a Senate version before the end of the Congressional session this year. If a compromise isn't reached, the bills would have to be introduced again next year.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Indian Affairs regional office in Albuquerque is still processing a request by the Jemez Pueblo for land to be placed into federal trust for the Anthony casino. The pueblo submitted its application in December 2004. The agency is preparing a draft Environmental Impact Statement, an assessment required before major federal actions.
"It's still in our office for consideration," said Dawn Selwyn, deputy regional director for Indian Affairs. "We're making progress."
Selwyn said a draft version of the EIS is in Washington for review by agency officials. Eventually the draft will be presented to the public and a hearing will be held on it, probably in Las Cruces.
"That's still the plan," she said. "We just don't have a timetable yet on when that's going to happen."
Ramonas said Peters and the pueblo are working with consultants to complete work for the EIS, and the application is making headway.
"The EIS process takes time," she said. "The pueblo and consultants working on the EIS are being very careful, so when the document is released it will be as thorough as possible."
Monahan said he doubts the project stands much chance of being approved by Indian Affairs because he thinks it lacks public support.
"We'll continue to fight it until we get a ... statement of withdrawal from the Jemez Pueblo and Gerald Peters, which has yet to come," he said. "They're down for the count; the count is seven, and we're headed to 10."
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