By Jeff Grant | Daily News-Sun
Arizona’s two U.S. senators and a House member — bolstered by a larger group of their fellow Republicans — are reviving efforts to halt an Indian tribe’s $400 million casino project, the first in the West Valley.
The argument by Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake, both R-Ariz., is not new; they and Rep. Trent Franks, R-8th Dist., contend the Tohono O’odham Nation’s plan to build on 53 acres of vacant unincorporated land near the city of Glendale off Loop 101 and Northern Avenue contradicts federal laws on tribal gaming. Their Senate resolution, named the Keep the Promise Act of 2015, seeks to bar gaming activities on certain Indian lands in Arizona until 2027 when a pact between the state and its tribes on casino sites is due to expire.
The concerns behind the Senate measure and its House twin, H.R. 308, are financial. Tribes operating gaming facilities in the East Valley have said a West Valley site would siphon off some of their revenue.
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