That kind of sums up the latest chapter on efforts to bring two tribal casinos to the city of Barstow, as new legislation was introduced today to finally ratify these unusual… and controversial… deals.

The formal gaming compacts struck between Governor Schwarzenegger, the Big Lagoon Rancheria of Humboldt County, and the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla Indians of San Diego County failed to make it out of the Legislature last year. Los Coyotes’ reservation is easily more than 100 miles from Barstow; Big Lagoon is easily several hundred miles form the desert city.

But a lot of folks like the plan. Barstow officials like the economic possibilities; enviros like the fact that Big Lagoon would no longer try to build a casino on their pristine north coast reservation; and labor unions like the fact that the compacts allow casino workers to organize.

So who doesn’t like the deals, and who helped convince legislators not to ratify them in 2006? That would be some of southern California’s most powerful gaming tribes. Some wonder whether it’s an issue of casino competition. But the gaming tribes in question argue the compacts would set a precedent of tribal casinos on non-Indian lands, an eventual threat to the tribal monopoly on gaming in California.

This afternoon, the Big Lagoon and Los Coyotes compacts were re-introduced as SB 157, by Sen. Pat Wiggins (D-Santa Rosa) and Sen. Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield).

Representatives of the two tribes hope that a new crop of legislators will give the compacts new life; but the opposition of tribes like the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians still persists. Interestingly enough, the Agua Caliente have their own problems with the Legislature, as a revision to their gaming deal remains stuck… largely because of its lack of labor provisions demanded by unions.

So what does the “Three Months” in the headline refer to? Well, that may be all the time that’s left on the Barstow deal.

The Big Lagoon tribe’s legal battle with the state over their original plans for a casino in Humboldt has been on hold, while the tribe has attempted to set up shop down south. But tribal chairman Virgil Moorehead told reporters today that the time out could end as soon as May. In May, the tribe can legally walk away from the Barstow project and take their chances in court with a casino back at home.

“We decided to go to Barstow upon the request of the governor of this state,” he said. “This legislative session is the final go for us.”