Free Republic

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he's counting on four wealthy Indian tribes and their expanding gambling operations to help close California's massive budget shortfall. Voters gave their blessing Tuesday to the deals allowing the tribes to add thousands of slot machines. Now the question is: will the money really make much of a difference? Propositions 94-97 give the tribes rights to 17,000 additional slot machines in exchange for promises to share hundreds of millions of dollars annually with the cash-strapped state. With about 96 percent of the votes counted Wednesday morning, the measures were leading by a margin of 56 percent...

SACRAMENTO – A year after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger agreed to give a group of American Indian tribes unlimited gaming, slot machines bearing the likeness of his most famous movie character have started to arrive in California. The curious sequence of events raised some eyebrows within the gambling industry, but the governor's aides say he is not getting any of the action from the Terminator slots. The machines, a bank of which were recently installed at the Viejas casino in east San Diego County, are the latest in a line that slot-giant International Game Technology has been developing for several years....

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....

SACRAMENTO (AP) - An agreement with Indian gambling interests that would generate nearly $1.3 billion for the state next year has not been signed, but budget negotiators have already seized on the new revenue as the potential bridge between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democrat-controlled Legislature. Democratic leaders say they want to add at least $400 million to the governor's proposed $103 billion spending plan for next year. The wish list, lawmakers and legislative aides say, includes money to lift a cap on enrollments at state colleges and universities that will cost about $60 million. They want to restore $98...