Posted on 04/21/2010 7:45:34 AM PDT by SmithL
In his victorious 2003 recall campaign against Gov. Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger promised to exact financial concessions from wealthy casino tribes.
He proceeded to negotiate lucrative tribal compacts that gave California a cut of the action from a major expansion of tribal gambling.
But now many tribes – and the courts – are pushing back. And the governor is on a losing streak.
The latest blow came Tuesday. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Schwarzenegger administration wrongfully strong-armed a San Diego County tribe during unsuccessful negotiations over a casino expansion.
In a 2-1 opinion, the panel said the governor negotiated in bad faith by demanding that the tribe pay a share of casino profits into California's general fund in exchange for adding slot machines.
The court ruled that the demand constituted an improper attempt by the state "to impose a tax" in violation of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
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There is a simple and just resolution for these situations.
Disband the tribes and put an end to the special legal status that should never have been created for them in the first place.
To the extent that they are occupying Federal land, put that land up for sale.
well that would not be possible. Some tribes are sovereign nations/land within the boarders of the united states. So much so that as I recall (and very few people know) Bill Casey of the CIA opened up weapons manufacturing companies on tribal land in Cabazon california. Because the tribe is its own nation he could fly these weapons out of their land to anywhere in the world without arms export laws of the united states applying.
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It is that “sovereign” status that needs to be terminated.
It was wrong to set up these illicit fiefdoms in the first place.
lol Um... have you read any history at all?
Legalize casino gambling in the whole state and watch the econmy shot thru the roof. Immediately construction would increase, unemployment would drop to almost nothing and real estate prices would start going back up.
Many of these tribes negotiated away their claims on lands in a comprehensive legal agreement with the US, allowing them this sovereignty. They essentially exchanged their land for peace. If we were to attempt to renegotiate a new deal, they would need to be justly compensated for their loss of sovereignty. They have a legal right to their sovereign status, and whether we like it or not, we are somewhat still a nation of laws.
" Ai gotda vunny veeling dah Reepublucan Potty tinks RINOS are
pure crapola. Chonny, undt Wooty undt ai ghonna ghet jops ass
Val-Mart greetahs, Home Depot paint mixahs, McD's ketchop pumpahs,
undt vaitahs at Ved Lopstah.......ven ai loosses mai jop as govnah."
Brown told Democrats; "These greedy bastards were making more money than me, the friggin governor."
California govt employee salaries (does not include pensions and benefits)
Special Nurse $350,000+
Municipal railway manager:$325,000+
Administrative services department head $280,000+
State college workers salaries:
JEFF TEDFORD UC BERKELEY HEAD COACH-INTERCOLG ATHLETICS $2,831,654
PHILIP E LEBOIT UC SAN FRANCISCO PROF OF CLIN___-MEDCOMP-A $1,979,362
TIMOTHY H MCCALMONT UC SAN FRANCISCO PROF OF CLIN___-MEDCOMP-A $1,945,717
RONALD W BUSUTTIL UC LOS ANGELES PROFESSOR-MEDCOMP-A $1,570,897
RICHARD J SHEMIN UC LOS ANGELES PROFESSOR-MEDCOMP-A $1,195,837
KHALIL M TABSH UC LOS ANGELES HS CLIN PROF-MEDCOMP-A $1,048,891
BEN BRAUN UC BERKELEY HEAD COACH-INTERCOLG ATHLETICS $998,569
http://www.sacbee.com/1098/story/1669273.html
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California debt may be half a trillion dollars: They knew in 11/29/09..........and earlier.
Dan Walters, Sacramento Bee, 11/29/09
FR Posted by SmithL
Just days before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislators finalized a water package, including an $11.1 billion bond issue, state Treasurer Bill Lockyer warned them not to do it. California is already deeply in debt, Lockyer warned, has huge budget deficits and can't afford another big bond issue. "The days of blithely heaping more and more debt burden on the general fund are over – at least they should be," Lockyer said.
The earmark-laden bond issue, the package's single most controversial element, raises an interesting question: Just how deeply in debt are our state and local governments? The answer: No one knows for certain, since debt is scattered through myriad agencies in many forms, but well over a half-trillion dollars is a fair estimate.
Lockyer's warning pertained to the state's "general obligation debt," which currently stands at $59 billion, and there are an additional $50-plus billion in general obligation bonds that have not yet been sold.
The biggest chunks of debt, however, are the unfunded obligations for pensions and health care of retired public employees. (Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
"Wasn't my fault," Brown told cheering Democrats.
Sure he did.
Pensions: A new Stanford study says California's public-employee retirement funds are $500 billion in the hole. It's news that unions and their candidate, Jerry Brown, don't want to hear.
The government union money machine has had a good run. But increasingly there are signs that it is heading for a crackup with the taxpaying public. Such an event may occur as early as this November in California, where the machine has had probably its greatest success and has done the most fiscal damage.
The "machine" to which we refer was engineered in the 1970s when California's legislature cleared the way for public-employee unions to organize and bargain.
Then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed a crucial bill in 1978 that gave public workers, already protected under civil service, collective bargaining rights on top of that. Such legislation created far more than mere bargaining power. It also gave the unions access to dues money that could be deployed to reward friends in the legislature as well as beating back reform efforts at the ballot box.
Winning a Democratic legislative primary without the support of public-employee unions is now unthinkable. The unions certainly have delivered for public employees, pushing the legislature to grant handsome pay raises and, most critically, lavish pension benefits.
Since 1999, police officers, firefighters and highway patrolmen have been eligible to retire at up to 90% of their last year's pay (based on 30 years' employment) at 50. (Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Brown told cheering Democrats: " I stood up for
the damn unions and saddled taxpayers with billions.
Now they're killing me b/c I wanna get back into office."
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The titular “Sovereign” status is the problem. It cannot be allowed to continue any longer.
The applicable laws can be changed — we need not cease to be a “nation of laws”
Compensation? The BIA has a lot of authority over much of so-called tribal lands — it will probably parse out some small percent of the net take as the lands are sold off to developers.
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