Media Contact: Michelle.Sherwood@sen.ca.gov

BAKERSFIELD, CA – Today, Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger) released a statement after Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 559 a tribal-state gaming compact between the State of California and the Tachi Yokut Tribe:

“For decades the Tachi Yokut Tribe has been a valuable partner in the Kings County Community,” said Senator Melissa Hurtado. “The Tribe provides scholarship assistance, job training and adult education programs, health and welfare assistance and other social services. I am pleased that the Governor has signed SB 559. The compact agreement will help support the tribe, its members, and provide long-term job security for the 700 employees currently employed.”

“The Santa Rosa Rancheria Tachi Yokut Tribe is grateful to Governor Newsom and Senator Hurtado for making this agreement possible. The compact creates an economic environment that promotes tribal self-sufficiency, and allows contributions to other tribes, the community, and local government,” said Santa Rosa Rancheria Tachi Yokut Chairman Leo Sisco. “Moreover, the compact affirms the tribe’s dedicated partnership and government-to-government relationship with the State of California and solidifies the future of our people.”

Senate Bill 559 is the vehicle to ratify the tribal-state gaming compact between the State of California and the Santa Rosa Rancheria Tachi Yokut Tribe. The Tachi Tribe will also provide $900,000 in good will to Kings County through an Intergovernmental Agreement, and will be providing half the expenses for maintenance of a fire station. The Tribe currently provides job security to more than 700 non-tribal members.

About Senator Melissa Hurtado

Senator Melissa Hurtado represents a new generation of Latina leaders, as the youngest woman ever elected to the California State Senate and as a product of immigrant parents. Senator Hurtado represents the 14th Senate District and focuses on rural community issues that often go unheard — access to clean air and water, food insecurity and poverty, inequities in environmental policies, agriculture and access to health care. In July 2020, she was appointed to the national Biden Latino Leadership Committee alongside former Labor Secretary and current Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis – the only two California Latinas on the Committee.

For more information, visit Senator Hurtado’s Website here or find her on Twitter at @Senator_Hurtado
 

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