Indian gambling official urges cap on tribal payments to states

Sac Bee ^ | 3/24/04 | Erica Werner - AP

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress should cap the amount of casino revenue tribes can give to states because large payments can constitute an illegal tax, the head of the Interior Department's Indian gambling office said Wednesday.

George Skibine, director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Office of Indian Gaming Management, said at a Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing that tribal payments should be capped at 10 percent or less of revenue.

[NormsRevenge]

"Tribal governments did not create these state budget problems, and tribal governments should not be looked to as a way out,"

[TheConservator]

The government should immediately and unilaterally abrogate all indian treaties, and abolish all special rights for indians. Then, it should set up a commission to determine the one time payment that it will make to each affected member of an indian tribe in compensation.

Special rights for "indians" is a travesty of equal protection under the law.