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today, or fill out this form and stop by the
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Deadline:
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Write the m©st creative sp©©k
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Measure 20-25
Safer Communities
What are
the Facts?
Measure 20-25 is a proposed Lane County Charter Amendment designed to
fund prevention, intervention, and enforcement, and address gaps in the county
wide community safety system. Each Lane County community would receive
part of the money to use for its own safety programs and services.
Measure 20-25 would authorize an 8% surcharge on state personal and corporate
income and excise taxes. If approved by voters, it would
• Begin January 1, 2000.
• Raise about $22 million the first year.
• End in 2006 unless voters renew it.
• Establish a cap on the tax rate; only voters could increase it.
• Share 45% of money with cities and unincorporated areas of Lane County.
This would not be a tax on your annual income. Measure 20-25 proposes
a surcharge on income taxes paid to Oregon. For example,
for every $1000 of net income taxes, you would pay
To figure out how much you would pay, look
at last year’s tax return and multiply the
amount on line 43 on Oregon Form 40,
or line 23 on Oregon Form 40S, by .08.
This is deductible if you itemize on your
federal tax return.
Measure 20-25 will be on the November
1999 vote-by-mail ballot.
For More Information
Call 541-953-3466
www.co.lane.or.us
Lane County, 125 East 8th Ave., Eugene, OR 97401
Tribe seeks
casino site
COOS BAY — The Confederat
ed Tribes of the Coos, Lower
Umpqua and Siuslaw — the only
tribe in Oregon without a casino—
is suing the federal government for
rights to land where they plan to ,
build their first gambling center.
The only place the Coos can
legally build a casino is on its 6- „
acre reservation a few miles from
the Coquille Indian Tribe’s sprawl
ing Mill Casino in the economical
ly struggling community of Coos
Bay—hardly an ideal location.
So the 720-member coastal tribe
is suing the federal government for
approval to build a casino 48 miles
north, near a historic Siuslaw vil
lage just east of Florence.
“We have one rental that we get
$350 a month for,” Coos Tribal
Chairman Dick Clarkson said.
“That’s our economic develop
ment. ... Other tribes are making a
million a week from their casinos,
and we make $350 a month. We
aren’t on the same page as every
body else.”
Eight tribes in Oregon operate
casinos, grossing an estimated
$250 million to $300 million a year,
according to Robert Whelan, senior
economist for ECONorthwest. But
earnings vary widely depending
on one crucial factor: location.
In 1997, Whelan estimated that
the Confederated Tribes of Grand
Ronde, with the casino closest to
Portland and the Willamette Val
ley, generated $82 million in gross
revenue before expenses. In con
trast, the Warm Springs tribe’s re
mote Central Oregon casino
grossed an estimated $5.8 million.
Under the federal Indian Gam
ing Regulatory Act, federally rec
ognized tribes can build casinos on
land held in trust for them by the
federal government before 1988,
when the act passed Congress.
Dennis Whittlesey, the Coos’ at
torney in Washington, D.C., ar
gues that two parcels owned by
the Coos just east of Florence meet
two of the exceptions and should
be considered reservation land
qualifying for gambling.
In January 1998, the tribe
bought a 100-acre parcel of land
containing an old tribal village
site. The U.S. Bureau of Indian Af
fairs placed it into trust for purpos
es other than gambling.
Then in October, Congress
passed a technical amendment
bringing an adjacent driveway
into reservation status, amending
the 1984 act that restored the tribe.
The tribe wanted to ensure ac
cess to a tribal cemetery to the
north, which the tribe hopes to
one day purchase, he said.
Whittlesey said the tribe then re
alized that because the 100-acre
Hatch property was adjacent to the
driveway, the larger piece was eligi
ble for gambling under a federal law
exception that says gambling is per
mitted on newly acquired land that
is adjacent to a tribe’s reservation.
Whittlesey says a tribe such as
the Coos—terminated by Congress
in 1954, restored to sovereign sta
tus in 1984 — is at a disadvantage
because it has a tiny reservation.
And he said other Oregon tribes
are gambling on land acquired af
ter 1988, including the Grand
Ronde, Coquille and Siletz.
In the lawsuit filed in U.S. Dis
trict Court in Washington, D.C.,
against Interior Secretary Bruce
Babbitt and BLA head Kevin Gover,
Whittlesey argues that the Depart
ment of the Interior has failed to re
spond to the tribe’s request that the
land be certified for gambling.
The AssociatedPcessV, Y. Y.