February 7 - 2008
In a strange election, California voters approved to allow more than
seventeen thousand more slot machines in Tribal Casinos locate through the
state. On the same ballot, they did not approve a bill to boost community college funding.
We are all for slot machines, so that is great news, but defeating a
bill to boost college funding does not make much sense. What were you
guy's thinking on this one?
After Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature signed off on
agreements allowing the tribes to add a combined 17,000 slot machines,
competing tribes and race tracks placed the propositions on the ballot in
an attempt to nullify the deals.
The four tribes benefiting from the new laws (Pechanga, Morongo, Sycuan and Agua Caliente)
all staked claim that extra slots will help to balance the deficit. The tribes
will be generating hundreds of million of dollars in revenue each year to
the State.
Opponents were unhappy with the state's share, and claimed that this would
only fatten the pockets of the already health Indian casinos. There are
now fears of gigantic Las Vegas style casinos popping up throughout the
state.
