No California Winnings
California’s Indians have given $978,000 to Gov. Gray Davis’s re-election campaign over the past two years. Davis was the state official who negotiated and signed a gambling compact with the Indians three years ago, creating the terms for Indian gaming. The compact could have required the tribes to send a share of the gaming revenues to the state treasury. It could have given the state stronger oversight of the casinos. It could have forced tribes to abide by local zoning and environmental ordinances. But it does none of those things. (Michael Kelley / For the Times)
Today, with not one nickel of gaming revenue going into the states general funds, and California facing a budget deficit estimated at $26 billion to $35 billion over the next 16 months, Davis wants a share of the take. The compact reopens to negotiations in March as the Indians are invoking their right to new talks if they want to expand their operationswhich they do. Davis says hell ask that tribes turn over as much as $1.5 billion in revenues from their estimated $5-billion industry. A tribal leader calls the request “hogwash” and a “nonstarter.” (Michael Kelley / For the Times)
