We Must Fight the Evil Indians

10-3-03

[Chad Fairbanks]

Define "Tax Free", if you please, because in Claifornia 90+ percent of the indians pay state income taxes (very very few live 'tax free') and all pay federal income taxes.

So, if you could cite some reliable sources that say they are getting this 'tax-free', I'd appreciate it.

[Chad Fairbanks]

What's worrying me is the constant ignorance and blatant hatred of Indians on Free Republic.

I don't have a problem with discussions of the issues, but the amount of ignorance and hatred does FR no favors.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Q. Are Indians required to pay taxes?

A. Yes. All Indian people pay federal income, FICA and social security taxes. Only the small percentage of Indians who live and work on their own federally recognized reservations – not unlike soldiers and their families living on military installations – are exempt from paying state income and property taxes. However, they still pay taxes such as sales and all other special and excise taxes.

According to the National Indian Gaming Commission, Tribal government gaming operations generated 12.7 billion-dollars in revenue in 2001. Tribal government gaming creates jobs, increases economic activity and generates tax revenue both on and off the reservation. Consider the following: in San Diego county alone, tribal gaming has been responsible for the creation of more than 5,000 well-paying jobs, with a payroll of $44 million per year (and the associated payroll taxes and employee income taxes).

[bicycle thug]

"Rest assured, it's meaning is clear."

"Trust me, I'm a surgeon," said the man as he fired up the chainsaw.

Here we are being called a "hate group," and you label Indians bombastically as, "...we must fight the evil Indians. The evil Indians are the fount[ain] of all evil in the world."

One might say a people are representing evil, or doing evil; but to label them as the wellspring of ALL evil smacks of bigotry. Whether you are a bigot or not - I don't know you well enough to say whether you are, or aren't.

Your argument is completely lost on me as you appear to scapegoat all Indians as evil. This is poor journalistic standards at best, and looks like something lifted from Stormfront.org at it's worst.

[Chad Fairbanks]

ANSWERS TO COMMON QUESTIONS ABOUT TRIBAL GOVERNMENT GAMING

Q. Did the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) create Indian gaming?
A. No. Gaming is a right of Indian nations. Large-scale Indian gaming, mainly in the form of bingo, predated IGRA by about 10 years. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1987 recognized Indian people’s right to run gaming when it ruled that states had no authority to regulate gaming on Indian land if such gaming is permitted outside the reservation for any other purpose (California v. Cabazon). Congress established the legal basis for this right when it passed IGRA in 1988.

Q. How many tribes have signed compacts with the State of California?
A. On September 10, 1999 fifty-eight (58) tribal governments signed tribal-state compacts with Governor Gray Davis. Since September, three additional tribes have signed tribal-state gaming compacts bring the total number of compacts in California to sixty-one (61). The compacts were signed by the Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, and printed in the Federal Register on May 16, 2000. Since September of 1999 three additional tribes have signed tribal-state gaming compacts bringing the total number of compacts in California to sixty-one (61).

Q. Will non-gaming tribes benefit from Indian gaming?
A. Yes. For the first time in United States history, the compacts negotiated between the California tribal governments and the state of California included a provision for revenue sharing with non-gaming tribes.

Q. How do tribes use the revenue generated from Indian gaming?
A. Gaming on Indian reservations is operated by tribes to fund governmental programs. IGRA requires that all revenues from tribal gaming operations be used solely for governmental or charitable purposes. Much like state governments determine the use of lottery revenues tribal governments determine how gaming proceeds are to be spent. Indian tribes are using gaming revenue to build houses, schools, roads and sewer and water systems; to fund the health care and education for their people; and to develop a strong, diverse economic base for the future.

Q. Are Indians required to pay taxes?
A. Yes. All Indian people pay federal income, FICA and social security taxes. Only the small percentage of Indians who live and work on their own federally recognized reservations – not unlike soldiers and their families living on military installations – are exempt from paying state income and property taxes. However, they still pay taxes such as sales and all other special and excise taxes.

According to the National Indian Gaming Commission, Tribal government gaming operations generated 12.7 billion-dollars in revenue in 2001. Tribal government gaming creates jobs, increases economic activity and generates tax revenue both on and off the reservation. Consider the following: in San Diego county alone, tribal gaming has been responsible for the creation of more than 5,000 well-paying jobs, with a payroll of $44 million per year (and the associated payroll taxes and employee income taxes).


Q. Who supports Indian gaming?
A. A majority of Americans support Indian gaming. Public opinion surveys both nationally and within various states, conclusively demonstrate that the public strongly supports gaming on Indian reservations. In the 1998 elections, 13 state and local referendums that dealt with gaming and Indian gaming won with overwhelming support from people of all walks of life. In 1998 California voters passed Proposition 5 with more than 63% voter approval. The following year Proposition 1A was passed with 64% of the votes.

Q. How is Indian Gaming regulated?
A. The tribes, as governments, are the first to be vigilant in protecting the integrity of projects they rely upon to feed, clothe, educate and employ their people. Tribal governmental gaming is regulated on three separate and distinct levels, in contrast to the single level of commercial gaming. The first level of regulation comes from the tribes themselves. With the establishment of the Indian gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA), tribes are mandated to establish a regulatory body (tribal regulators and commissions) to keep operations in compliance with local ordinances and state compacts. The second level is the State Gaming Department. The state will regulate the areas that have been negotiated with the tribes in the tribal-state compacts. The third level is the National Indian Gaming Commission, which became operable in February 1993 to oversee the regulation of Indian gaming. Other oversight entities include the federal government, the Department of Justice, FBI, and Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Q. Does Indian gaming work as a means of economic development for tribes and states?
A. Yes. Indian gaming is providing substantial economic benefits in states where the tribes and states have worked together to develop mutual goals. IGRA is working to the benefit of Indians and non-Indians in several states, including California, Washington, Arizona, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Connecticut. Reservations are slowly recovering from decades of failed well-meaning governmental programs. Indians and non-Indians are proudly leaving welfare rolls and getting payroll checks. They are taxpayers instead of tax users. Local and state governments are enjoying increased tax revenues. Only in those few instances where states failed to negotiate fair compacts in “good faith” in violation of IGRA has the process not worked.

Q. Are better economic development alternatives to gaming available to tribes?
A. Indian gaming is the first – and only – economic development tool that has ever worked on reservations. The majority of reservations are in remote, inconvenient locations on land that nobody else wanted. Before tribal government gaming, there had been little success with public or private sector economic development on reservations. The states have not proposed any specific or credible alternatives to Indian gaming as a meaningful source of tribal revenues and jobs. The National Gambling Impact Study Commission found that “no other economic development other than gaming has been found.” Moreover, tribal governments are using gaming proceeds to diversify and conduct other economic enterprises.

[kingu]

There are 150 Chumash Indians in Santa Ynez, CA splitting the revenue from the Chumash Casino. Each of the 150 people splitting the pot receives approximately $50,000 tax free each month. Yep, you read right: $50,000 per month. They refuse to share the proceeds with the 7,500-9,000 Chumash decendants estimated to be living in California.

50,000 a month, huh? That sure doesn't jive with all the people I know up at Santa Ynez. It really doesn't jive with all the people I know who go up to Santa Ynez to sell their stuff during per cap day.

Refuse to share with non-members? Come on, back in 1978, and again in 1984, and again in 1986 the tribal chairman at Santa Ynez wanted all those of Chumash descent to join the tribe. But the coastals wanted to get their own tribe, and the deep inlanders wanted their own tribe, and the former islanders wanted their own tribe.. They refused to join Santa Ynez and mumbled about getting their own federal recognition.

Division, well before the casino, is what has affected what is happening today. I've always said that there is nothing more annoying than Indian vs Indian. The Tongva are divided (four ways), the Acjachemens are divided (two ways) - surprise, neither are federally recognized.

I support dramatically higher fees if the Chumash want to expand their compact, and I support their soverignty in deciding who is a member of their tribe, and I support the decisions of those who have declined to be part of that tribe.

[KellyAdmirer]

Guys like tailhappy post this crap, then the liberals who scan this place with a microscope jump on it and get to smear all Freepers. I, for one, consider it offensive and the work of a liberal tool. I'm sure I'm not alone.

[vbmoneyspender]

Why don't you shutup if you can't add something to the debate. The last thing we need is more money going into Sacramento. Anyone who is honest about this issue would acknowledge that we don't have an undertaxation problem in California, we have an overspending problem. All taxing the Indians does is send more money to Sacramento.

[Chad Fairbanks]

NO, you are not alone. But hey, what would I know? I'm an Indian, therefore I am part of "the fount of all evil" ;0)

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Define "Tax Free", if you please, because in Claifornia 90+ percent of the indians pay state income taxes (very very few live 'tax free') and all pay federal income taxes.

Dang! And here I was going to not pay my taxes this year and file for a return of all taxes paid for the past years...

[EggsAckley]

Speaking of liberal tools, look at the post to me, right under yours.

This thread is a dud, too many trolls here. I'm gone. He's not even worthy of a response.

TA TA FER NOW

[kingu]

You know what might settle all of these debates? Getting a copy of, oh, say Daren Marquez's federal income tax returns from the last couple years. As chairman of San Manuel, I'm sure that his return would be spotless.

[DoughtyOne]

If the Indian Gaming people can pay out $120,000,000.00 over five years to influence politics in California, one would think they could afford to pay a few bucks in support of the state as well.

If they wanted to be left alone and left the state alone, I might be more inclined to give them a pass, but they want to buy influence in the state. Why should they be able to do that and yet avoid any of the responsibilities that it takes to run a state. Can't have it both ways IMO.

It's too late now.

[BigBobber]

What's worrying me is the constant ignorance and blatant hatred of Indians on Free Republic.

Oh get off it. Now you're sounding exactly like a whiney lib.

Since when is a colorblind society with no preferences based on race "hatred"?

[Chad Fairbanks]

I don't know - some tribal governments tend to have corruption, just like many "white" governments... ;0)

[Chad Fairbanks]

No, I'm not speaking like a whiny lib - I'm stating FACT. Look around at all of the indian-related threads. It might actually open your eyes. The Ignorance and hatred of those who claim we are not citizens, and that we should have no right to vote are pretty telling.

So, I would suggest that if you don't know what you are talking about, shut your mouth, ok? Looking like a fool does you no favors either.

[RGSpincich]

Indian Gaming is an affirmative action program. We bend state laws so that a particular group can profit.

[DoughtyOne]

Chad, if you think your dump on the forum is the only pertinant information regarding Indian gaming, then you're one pretty dim guy. The word Indian appears a lot around here because it's "Indian" gaming. How did you want us to reference what it is without saying what it is?

If it were Greek Orthodox Kangroo Flee Gamining, we'd use that term to discuss it.

Take that buffalo chip off your shoulder and wise up.

[bicycle thug]

"Guys like tailhappy post this crap, then the liberals who scan this place with a microscope jump on it and get to smear all Freepers."

I quite agree. I have seen the pieces on SF.Indymedia.org that lifts entire FReeper posts to make the case that this is allegedly a "hate group." It pisses me off because you know, I know and most everyone else in this virtual community knows there are forms and style to online community making. Those making this out to be a "hate group" are as ignorant as someone arresting a kid for saying; "I'll kill you for breaking my tonka truck" to his brother alleging he was menacing.

Whether they are stupid or not in thusly labelling us, we should be very careful not to give them undue ammunition to shoot at us with.

I was a longtime 'citizen' of one now gone that could have very easily been labelled a "hate group" by someone taking verbiage out of context of the lively banter between people, many of whom who knew each other for years.

We have to be very very careful. And as a former Special Forces Trooper trained to win the hearts and minds of people in completely different cultures, this thread makes me wince as much as any example of well meaning act of cultural ignorance I have seen a rank and file Joe Snuffy Private do when they insulted a local in another country.

The core argument of the thread is fine. The way it expresses it just flat has the stench of roadkill.

[Chad Fairbanks]

That's Bulls**t. No one "bent" state law - California was required, by federal law signed by Reagan, to negotiate wit the various tribes in order to allow gaming - No laws were bent or broken in order to implement gaming.

Still no one has answered my question regarding how places in Nevada and Atlantic City can have casinos - obviously casinos are a state issue, and any state could allow casinos with the simple passage of a bill if they chose.