Casino news from http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
A study of Indian tribal economies in Washington state indicates tribes are investing casino income in new businesses and their own government services and, as a result, raising the economic prospects of their members and the surrounding communities.
The Tulalip Tribes' economy was one of four Indian economies profiled in the study by independent economist Jonathan Taylor for the Washington Indian Gaming Association.
The report, delivered last week to the 2006 Northwest Indian Gaming Conference in Tacoma, calculates that in 2004, tribal casinos and other Indian businesses generated more than $3.2 billion in revenue in the state and employed 13,146 people, about 4,000 of them Indians.
Locally, the Tulalips' 2005 taxable sales rose to $311 million, yielding $26 million in taxes for the state, the report says.
John McCoy, the general manager of the Tulalips' Quil Ceda Village business development, said the study shows that the Tulalips' economic growth, described in the report as "explosive," benefits the entire community.
"We're generating jobs and taxes and attracting other investments to the area," said McCoy, who also is a Democratic state representative from the Tulalip Reservation.
But the report raises a long-standing complaint of McCoy and the tribes: The Tulalips don't get any taxes generated by their Quil Ceda Village.
McCoy has introduced a bill in the Legislature the past several years to redirect the local portion of the sales tax, about $2.2 million in 2005, to the tribes. It now goes to Snohomish County, and the county has opposed the legislation, saying it must pay for some of the impacts of development, including new roads.
In the 2006 legislative session, the bill passed the House but failed to move out of committee in the Senate. McCoy said he didn't know when, or if, he would reintroduce the bill.
The report on tribal economies also documents the explosive growth in traffic around the Marysville freeway exits.
Traffic at the 116th Street Northeast exit from Interstate 5, just north of Quil Ceda Village, rose by 75 percent between 1995 and 2005. Traffic at 88th Street Northeast, at the south end of the development, has grown 420 percent in the past six years, the study says.
McCoy's opponent for the 38th District seat, Republican Kim Halvorson, has argued that the tribes' development, which includes an outlet mall and Wal-Mart and Home Depot stores, came without adequate planning or the necessary roads and freeway overpasses.
The tribes say they've spent $60 million on roads and infrastructure for Quil Ceda Village and recently spent $6 million on design work for a widened 116th Street Northeast overpass. The county has not listed the 116th project as a priority for state funding, McCoy said.
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