Posted on 06/21/2004 3:09:13 PM PDT by mdittmar
Gov. Schwarzenegger Signs Agreements With Indians to Expand Gambling Operations
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed new agreements with five Indian tribes Monday that will allow a major expansion of tribal gambling in exchange for billions of dollars in payments to the state over the next quarter-century.
The deal allows an unlimited increase in the number of slot machines at the Indian tribes' casinos. The current compact, signed by then-Gov. Gray Davis in 1999, limits each tribe to 2,000 machines.
The tribes will pay the state a badly needed $1 billion this year and $250 million a year after that until 2030.
The agreement allows Schwarzenegger to fulfill a campaign promise to make tribes pay a greater share of their casino profits to the state, which has been desperately trying to close multibillion-dollar budget deficits.
The tribes are the Pala Band of Mission Indians, the Rumsey Band of Wintun Indians, the United Auburn Indian Community, the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians and the Pauma Band of Mission Indians.
Schwarzenegger hopes to have new agreements with as many as a dozen Indian tribes, but not all are receptive to the reworked deals.
One tribe, the Aqua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, has sponsored a ballot measure that would allow expanded Indian gaming in return for a payment to the state of 8.8 percent of tribal net income.
Schwarzenegger is seeking more than that. He also opposes another ballot measure that seeks to tax tribes 25 percent and could allow card rooms and racetracks to operate slot machines.
I have always been dubious in general about the way this kind of dealing skirts restrictions in the US Constitution that only the federal government conclude treaties with foreign nations. Either the tribes are US citizens or they are not.
Gov. Schwarzenegger Signs Agreements With Indians to Allow New Way Of Scalping The White Man
Mebbe Arnald can call up Sam Birdwater and get National Indian Knitting Enterprise to give the state a loan.
Watch out that Sam doesn't foreclose....
LOL - it just gets better & better.
Maybe now they will allow for legalized gambling too. Just to compete with Lost Wages- er Las Vegas.
PS: Am I the only one who finds Arnolds use of the words “fair share” to describe what the Indians need to pay as worrying?
NSRD.... I can't wait for the next "deal" orchestrated by the Austrian prince.
He'll probably declare the citizenship requirements for US presidency to be unconstitutional during a formal signing ceremony of a publicly ballyhooed treaty with the editors of the Los Angeles Times.
>>>I can't wait for the next "deal" orchestrated by the Austrian prince
Massive expansion of the Scientology (Criminon) Prisoner rehab program?
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-hollywood20jun20,1,7935764.story?coll=la-headlines-california
Schwarzenegger FYI... more money from Indian Casinos for California :-)
No matter what he says
no matter what he does
no matter what he promises
they'll skewer him because
no matter who's in office
no matter "r" or "R"
he either doesn't do enough
or else he's gone too far.
What a horrid, thankless job...
I can't imagine worse.
Whatever seems a blessing
they will turn into a curse.
Whatever teenie progress
will engender tons of ire...
Whatever takes too long
will earn the label "what a liar."
I wish the armchair governors
would run for office, too.
Let's see what progress they could make...
what kind of job THEY'D do!
They'd fail entirely... to accomplish anything in politics requires the ability to formulate strategy. They can't.
That's okay... we'll take care of America in spite of them.
Yep, thanks. I remember the tribes trying to split the GOP by contributing to McClintock to boost his campaign.
They did NOT want Schwarzenegger to win.... it didn't work :-)
I provided the link for a little FR perspective - why some of us would consider this latest out of Sacramento somewhat... ironic.
And I'm sure Arnold will be able to count on a little more wampum next election cycle. Everyone wins - smells like success to me!
The Dems were giving the Indian tribes what they wanted in exchange for bribes... sorry, "contributions".... to their political campaigns.
Arnold wouldn't take their money.
Arnold forced the tribes to give to California a billion now and more future billions in exchange for giving them more slots.
The only thing ironic is the fact that supposed conservatives would have a problem with this.
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