Schwarzenegger Ally Hired by Casino Firm

LA Times - Recall Notebook ^ | 09/25/03

[DoctorZIn]

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[Tempest]

"Wait... you mean Arnold hates Indian casinos because his handlers are getting major payola from Nevada casinos?"

Wow! More tinfoil assertions from McClintock fanatics. I'm not surprised nor impressed. I'm glad that the stupidity around here hasn't run as rampant as I had thought. . . . . .

[socal_parrot]

according to federal guidelines signed into law by Ronald Reagan

If it's a fed thing, why can't California get revenue from Indain gaming like 15 other states?

[Roscoe]

Didn't read the thread?


MYTH: INDIAN PEOPLE DO NOT PAY TAXES.

FACT: INDIAN PEOPLE PAY ALL TAXES REQUIRED BY STATE AND FEDERAL LAW.

All Indian people pay federal income, FICA and social security taxes. Most Indians also pay state income and property taxes. Only the small percentage of Indians who live and work on federally recognized reservations - not unlike soldiers and their families living on military installations - are exempt from paying state income and property taxes. However, they still pay taxes such as sales and Federal Income tax.

Indian tribes are governments with responsibilities to their citizens, but tribes almost uniformly lack a tax base to support their governmental needs. Some tribes have found in gaming a means to not only provide jobs and economic activity on their reservations, but also a source of badly needed government revenue. As sovereign governments, tribes do not have to pay taxes on their revenues to any other governments. Do states pay taxes on their resources derived from gaming or from any other source? NO!

[heleny]

Doea Arnold plan to increase taxes on the Indians, who are supposed to be sovereign?

Or, does Arnold plan to put the Indians out of business in CA, where they have sovereign land?

Without one of the former two options, how does he expect to make them pay their "fair share" or whatever he doesn't think they currently pay? We, as Americans, made a promise to Indians several decades ago that their reservations would be independent from our laws and regulations. What justification do we (or Davis) have to extract more money from them?

[ArneFufkin]

Pinnacle has ONE Nevada property, the Boomtown Casino in Reno. The rest of their casinos are in Indiana, Louisiana, Argentina and Mississippi as well as a card club in Los Angeles.

Bonnie Reiss worked with various Las Vegas Hotel/Casino operators over the years when she was putting together funding for the Afterschool programs she and Arnold spearheaded. If she was leading some assault on California gaming enabled by Governor Arnold, she'd be better "positioned" at Park Place Resorts, Harrahs, Mirage Resorts or some other large player. This is nonsense.

The McClintock gang here are showing themselves to be profoundly deceitful operators.

[Roscoe]

Arnold hates Indian casinos

Nobody said anything about Arnold hating Indians. His campaign strategist works for Las Vegas casino interests, and he's running ads attacking tribal gaming for political advantage. He probably doesn't have a clue about the revenues they generate for local governments.

[Roscoe]

Without one of the former two options, how does he expect to make them pay their "fair share" or whatever he doesn't think they currently pay?

Just his campaign's typical smoke and mirrors, intended to deceive voters.

[socal_parrot]

Glad to see you're such an Indian activist. I have business relationships with the Navajo Nation in Arizona. I am aware of their sovereignty and the other benefits they receive. Still, my question is, other states receive revenue from Indian gaming, why not California?

[demnomo]

Indian Gaming pays NO taxes to the local cities, state and federal governments. Nada. Zip. Nor do the casinos on Indian
Reservations have to follow the laws, rules and regulations of the US of A. They are a "sovereign nation."

That's why the "tribes" from New Jersey and Neveda love to use Indian casinos as fronts for their gambling operations.

Indian Gaming tribes make and break their own rules. They can give as much money as they want to politicians and the community--if it's in their interests. It's a form of Red Reparations...courtesy of the Clinton Administration and some slick PR/Political work about 15 years ago.

[Roscoe]

Still, my question is, other states receive revenue from Indian gaming, why not California?

They already generate tax revenue for California and local governments. California might have been in a better bargaining position to negotiate revenue sharing when it made its 20 year agreement with the tribes if it hadn't already had its own state gaming in place; horse racing, lotteries, scratch offs, card rooms, etc.

[Roscoe]

Indian Gaming pays NO taxes to the local cities, state and federal governments.

Indian casinos are filled with non-Indian employees. If you think the tribes don't withhold state and federal taxes from those paychecks, you're very mistaken.

[demnomo]

Yeah, both the Republicans and the Democrats have accepted millions of dollars from the Indian Gamers. It takes away every US citizen's right to self-government. During the Clinton years, more laws were passed giving anyone with a fraction of Native American blood to start their own "tribe" and get some prime real estate on which to run a casino. (Of course, only the tribes who partnered with the boys from Jersey and Vegas had the money and clout to be heard and be given tribal status.)

I'm part Ojibwe Indian. Indian Gaming did not bless the Reservation in Minnesota (the tribe from Atlantic City runs the joint using a couple of Indian families as fronts) where many of my relatives came from. Now there is a casino being pushed onto the borders of my quiet suburban hometown here in N. California. The "tribe" was created out of whole cloth and they have bribed the local politicos with huge campaign contributions and promises (MOU) that can not be legally enforced.

Go here: http://www.citizensalliance.org/ and here: http://www.stopthecasino101.com to become educated on this subject.

[demnomo]

All earnings from Indian Gaming are not taxed at the local, state and federal levels. Maybe some employee paychecks from the casinos are, but not the hundreds of millions of dollars that the casino rakes in. Plus, the tribes don't have to declare other kinds of incomes or donations via outrageous loopholes and ambiguity regarding their member's being part US citizen and part citizen of a sovereign nation.

It's a scam and needs more oversight and laws protecting non-Indian citizen and their right to self-determination and self-government.

[Roscoe]

"A lifelong liberal, Reiss was floor manager of the 1980 Democratic National Convention."

It's a scam and needs more oversight and laws

What's wrong with Ronald Reagan's guidelines?

[Roscoe]

"Indian Tribes use gaming first and foremost for tribal government programs, community infrastructure, charity, and aid to local governments. Where Indian Tribes have suffered the highest teen suicide rates in the country, Indian gaming has built schools, funded colleges scholarships, and given our children hope for a brighter future. The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, for example, built two schools and their high school graduates are now fluent in both Ojibwe and English. Where our people suffer epidemic problems of diabetes, heart, and liver disease, Indian gaming is building health clinics, dialysis centers, and fitness centers."

http://www.pechanga.net/press_release/Letter%20From%20The%20National%20Indian%20Gaming%20Association%20to%20Time%20Magazine.htm

[demnomo]

Oh, and even if the employee paychecks have some witholdings taken out of them, the Indian and non-Indian casino employees are still going without worker's compensation, state labor laws, and other benefits that you or I have working outside a sovereign nation's borders. There are numerous cases cited in the URL's that I gave you. It's a terrible mess and needs to be fixed.

Indian Gaming casinos are not like a corporation, small business or organization subject to the laws, rules and regulations of the USA. The state compacts don't even mitigate the actual infrastructure and social costs that a casino located
near an urban or suburban center generates. (You can thank the politicians who love all of that wonderful cash. They ain't gonna hurt the goose that lays the golden egg for them...yet.)

[Roscoe]

without worker's compensation, state labor laws, and other benefits

Versus unemployment outside the reservation. It the tribal nations should be forced to turn over additional revenues to state, should they be entitled to a cut of lottery revenues?

[demnomo]

Go to the Minnesota Star. Do a search under Indian Gaming.
Yeah, Indian Gaming has done some good things, but the bad (increased alcoholism, gambling addictions, organized crime, drugs, greed, in-fighting amongst Indians for power and control of the resources, along with rising animosity from surrounding non-Indian communities who have to deal with gambling garbage) far outweigh the benefits.

Organized crime benefits. Read the Minnesota Star articles going back ten years. Read the Boston Globe exposes. Read the recent TIME and US News magazines of last year. Those articles detail the evil and greed that consumes the casino proponents.

I'm guessing that you must be a casino employee or a gambler who believes that Indian Gaming is swell and doesn't hurt anybody nor does it violate Constitutional principles. IMHO, Indian Gaming--in its current form--is not a positive thing in the long run for Indians or non-Indians.

[Roscoe]

"This administration intends to restore tribal governments to their rightful place among governments of this nation and to enable tribal governments, along with state and local governments, to resume control over their own affairs." (President Ronald Reagan Statement on Indian Policy, 1983, Pub. Papers 96, 99 (1984)).

I'll take Ronald Reagan over the 1980 floor manager of the Democrat National Convention.