Posted on 10/20/2004 8:49:58 AM PDT by Zevonismymuse
SANTA YNEZ, Calif. — Gilbert Cash would have no chance of working as a blackjack dealer at one of the major hotels on the Las Vegas Strip.
The reason: Cash has filed for personal bankruptcy four times and failed to pay about $60,000 in income taxes. He also is awaiting trial on charges of choking and beating his estranged wife — allegations he denies.
http://www.latimes.com/news/yahoo/la-me-chumash19oct19,1,6605413.story
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
There is a lot missing from this story so I expect another article before the election.
What's Prop 68? We have (in WA) I-892 which will eliminate the tribes' monopoly on gambling machines.
"Mr. Cash" is a great name for the subject of this story.
It is a propisition that would tax the casinos.
The part of 68 that I like allows racetracks and card rooms to have slot machines. These Indian Gamers need a little competition from regulated gambling businesses.
Sometimes I don't even know why I went to college
Another funny thing about the Chumash; they can have much of their college education funded by the federal government, even though they can afford to pay for any school they want to attend.
Of course,having the GPA to get in is another matter.
The so-called Chumash under 18 who receive a monthly check have it held in trust and get millions of dollars when they turn 18.
Can you imagine living in a little rural town with 154 suddenly rich ex-welfare recipients?
I guess you do know what it is like, being from Porterville. Has your casino went Vegas style yet? Ours did and it is awful. We have constant bumper to bumper traffic on our little mountain pass.
We also now have bums who get bussed in, lose their money then hang around down town panhandling.
I have lived in Santa Barbara for 30 years (still do). I remember what the res was like before the casino - it was a pit. Do you remember the fiasco when BIA built homes and the contractor went bankrupt, and they sat unfinished for years? Me, I'd rather tax the stupid at the casino than pay for welfare for the Chumash. I know a few tribal members from Winchester Canyon Gun Club where I am also a member. Not at all clear to me that this guy is typical of the tribe's members. I know Santa Ynez locals don't like the traffic on 154. I wouldn't either if it was me, but the Chumash still have a treaty. It is their land and their money, not the state of California's. They can p*ss it away if they want to and it is none of my business.
A year after the big casino went in at Prior Lake, Minnesota, something like two dozen Hummer trucks were bought by tribe members. Guess they spent some of it...
Read the entire rticle; he is at least typical of the gaming commision members.
I have children who have grown up with these families. I have observed them up close and personal from when they lived in mobil homes on the res to the present and most of the 154 people who receive checks are not nice people.
There are thousands of Chumash descendents who do not receive the check because they were hard working self-sufficient members of the community. They did not want Bingo money. Once the checks got into the six figures and some of these folks tried to claim money they were denied admission to the tribal role.
The folks receiving the checks would never want a DNA test. Many were just squatters.
ALL the Chumash I know list their addresses as on the rez when they make a purchase. They pay no sales tax, no car tax, etc. The fellow in the article, Mr. Cash, owes $60,000 in back income taxes on his salary as a fireman.
If my taxes are being raised to make up for a shortfall here in California shouldn't I want some of these folks to chip in?
Pardon me for being blunt, but why does a shortfall in state revenues mean you have a right to their money? If what they are doing (buying off the res and avoiding state tax) is legal why should they "chip in?" When I travel in Europe I can get a VAT refund, which is the same thing. BTW, I think this individual is known to my fireman neighbor. I have heard about him before. Yikes, small world.
Based on my reading of the history of the tribe, they ALL may not be Chumash. Lots of Mexican indians came up with the Spanish - DNA comparison to known Chumash remains would just prove what local knowledge has hinted at. Anyway, the feds do recognize them as a tribe and as members of the tribe, so I think they get their freebee. Whether we like it or not, or even whether it is fair or not. How many rich idiot children do you know who blew their patrimony. It is proverbial.
I still think we white-eyes got the best part of the deal - conquest of the Americas-wise. I don't begrudge them getting rich, any more than I would if they weren't indians.
It very well could be that your neighbor knows him. Ask your neighbor if Mr. Cash lives on the rez (he doesn't).
That is my point, these people do not live on the rez but give a rez address to illegally avoid taxes. They should chip in according to the law.
As far as the dividends from their gambling business, this is all uncharted water. The existing laws were established before the Feds allowed the gambling and left much of the decision making up to individual states. That is what is now being sussed out in the courts and with propositions. I think people making $30,000 a month should be held to the same tax standards as other folks.
Everything is subject to change because we live in a nation of laws. Just like the laws re; reservations were enacted, new, more fair and pertinent laws can now be enacted.
Maybe we can allow crack houses to be legal in the projects and let the folks living there keep all the proceeds tey make on crack, tax-free. Reparations....
This is also part of the problem. I know people who truly are Chumash and they are denied access to the casino dividends because the tribe is run by a single family who does whatever they want.
And you assume that I am one of the tormentors of the Chumash. I am not. My descedents had not even arrived when the west was one. Also, it was the Spanish who screwed the Chumash over. Most of the people getting the check are more Spanish than Chumash. Oh, the irony!
I disagree violently with the notion that "Everything is subject to change because we live in a nation of laws." It sounds to me like anything can be justified using that logic. Right or wrong there was a treaty which the government is obliged to honor. You and I don't like some of the results, but that doesn't remove our obligation to abide by it.
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