ShareThisThe new gambling deals Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has cut with powerful gambling tribes should alarm everyone. They give away too much to a handful of the richest, most powerful tribes in the state. The deals also expand gambling far beyond the "modest increase" voters were promised when they approved casino-style gambling in California in 1998.
The deals come as the tribes dump tens of thousand of dollars into the campaign coffers of key legislators who will be asked to ratify those compacts. One particularly unsavory example: Last week, the Pechanga tribe donated $50,000 to a campaign fund controlled by Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata.
Why is the governor doing this now? These tribes are not desperate. They already operate wildly profitable gambling monopolies, the most profitable enterprises in the state. The new compacts will give them billions more in profits.
One thing is clear: None of these compacts includes protection for workers that earlier Schwarzenegger compacts called for. The Assembly rightly refused to ratify a deal with the Agua Caliente tribe earlier this week, in part because it shortchanged labor. Legislators should reject these newest deals for that reason and because they come too late in the session and give too much away.
On the other hand, some compacts that have been sitting in the Legislature for many months deserve approval. The Los Coyotes Big Lagoon Compact protects a pristine area of the North Coast while giving an impoverished tribe the right to build a casino near Barstow that local governments in that area have long supported. Another compact involving the tiny Yurok tribe in Del Norte and Humboldt counties has also gotten enmeshed in this ugly, last-minute maneuvering. It also deserves to reach the governor's desk.
The rest of these deals should die and future compacts that expand Indian gambling in California ought to go before the voters.
