State Rep. Mele Carroll has reintroduced a bill that would allow gaming on Hawaiian homestead lands to provide a source of funds for the Department of Hawaiian Home Land's developments and programs.
"I'm not necessarily a gambler," said Carroll, a Democrat representing East Maui, Lanai and Molokai, on Wednesday. "I am putting out a conversation."
The bill, which is similar to a measure Carroll introduced last session, is aimed at providing the Hawaiian Homes Commission and the Hawaiian Home Lands Department with a new funding source. The Hawaiian Home Lands Trust has been receiving $30 million a year from the state since 1995 through Act 14, the result of a lawsuit that settled the accounting for the use of Hawaiian homelands by the state from 1959 to 1988.
"However, that allocation ends in 2015," she said of the 20 years of annual payments totaling $600 million.
With this main source of funding coming to an end, the Hawaiian Homes Commission needs to look for ways to replace those funds in austere economic times. She said the bill is not a "commercial enterprise" but a "mechanism" that would allow DHHL, if it chooses, to raise funds to move more people on to homelands and to fund infrastructure and social programs.
"If not gaming and if not raising taxes . . . then what?" she asked. "Nothing is 100 percent. This does provide an option."
When the bill came up for a hearing last February, there was opposition from law enforcement groups that were concerned about increasing crime and religious groups worried about the social and economic costs to society.
Even the chairman of the Hawaiian Homes Commission, Alapaki Nahale-a expressed those concerns last year. This time around, Nahale-a has taken a more neutral tone.
"We appreciate members of the Legislature supporting these kinds of authorities for the Hawaiian Homes Commission to exercise in support of furthering our mission of returning Native Hawaiians to their ancestral lands," Nahale-a said in a statement released Wednesday.
"With our Act 14 settlement funds of $30 million per year coming to an end in 2014, we have an urgent need and obligation to ensure the financial well-being of the Hawaiian Home Lands Trust through diversifying and increasing the trust's revenue streams. In the event this legislation is approved and this new power is conveyed to the commission, we will consult and work with our beneficiaries in deciding how best to move forward."
The bill, HB 2379, would allow the Hawaiian Homes Commission to allow gaming on Hawaiian homelands. The measure also would create the Hawaii Gaming Commission to regulate gaming operations, which could include bingo, a lottery, baccarat, blackjack, poker, craps and electronic gaming, she said.
The gambling commission would be empowered to impose a wagering tax on gross receipts of gaming operations with 80 percent going to the Hawaiian Home Lands Trust Fund and 20 percent to the state's general fund.
Carroll said she added the 20 percent for the state "because I have members in the Legislature who would not buy into 100 percent" of tax revenues going to the homeland trust. Those lawmakers said that the state already funds programs specifically for Native Hawaiians and that that money would help defray those expenses.
A key component in the bill calls for consultation with the beneficiaries of the trust, Carroll said. For example, the beneficiaries would decide whether a gambling operation would be built in an area, the types of gambling to be allowed, and whether it would be a casino or electronic operation, she said.
"We want to make sure it is not the casino you would see in Vegas," she said. "It would be more complimentary to the culture and the people."
While noting success stories and failures of gambling ventures with Native American tribes on the Mainland, Carroll discussed the success story of the Tulalip Tribes in Washington state.
"I have seen with my own eyes a success story, and they do take care of their own," she said in explaining how she came up with the gambling idea.
Her colleague at a national caucus gathering mentioned the Tulalip Tribe, and she toured their hotel-casino facility. The tribe started out with bingo and with those funds eventually built the Tulalip Resort Casino.
The facility is "complementary to the culture," promoting entrepreneurship and art from the tribe, she said. The money raised is invested back into the community and tribe, providing affordable housing, taking care of "social ills" and buying back land for the tribe.
The "social ills" of gambling are among the negatives brought up by opponents of legalized gambling.
"Gambling is not considered morally wrong in itself, but it may become morally wrong when it interferes with one's other duties or responsibilities," said Patrick Downes, editor of the Hawaii Catholic Herald, in a statement Wednesday.
"Historical and sociological evidence show that gambling is often accompanied by vice and social evils. In addition, the impact of gambling on low- and moderate-income families and individuals, on those with a gambling addiction, and on public morality in general are all serious concerns which must be considered.
"In view of the potential harm to the common good of the citizens of Hawaii, the Diocese of Honolulu is generally opposed to making organized gambling legal in the islands."
Maui Police Chief Gary Yabuta expressed similar concerns.
"On a law enforcement perspective, we would be concerned of crime relating to social dysfunctions manifested from the implementation of legalized gambling, to include gambling addiction and a diminished value of personal and family financial responsibility," he said.
* Lee Imada can be reached at leeimada@mauinews.com.
