Gambling to balance the budget

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California will get more than $9 billion from new Indian gambling revenue agreements.

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2007-10-15 00:00:00.0                                                             printable view

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California needs additional revenue to help fund vital public services like education and public safety. So Gov. Schwarzenegger, on behalf of the state, negotiated new gambling agreements with four Indian tribes that have casinos on existing tribal lands in Riverside and San Diego Counties - Agua Caliente, Morongo, Pechanga and Sycuan tribes. And the agreements were approved by a bi-partisan vote in the State Legislature. Under the agreements, the tribes would pay much higher percentages of their gaming revenues to the state. Those payments will help balance the state budget and provide more than $9 billion in new revenue over the next two decades that can be used for: Schools healthcare roads and highways public safety parks and libraries senior services Additionally, the agreements will strengthen state regulatory oversight of the tribes' casinos; create stronger environmental standards for the tribes' gaming facilities; and require the tribes to coordinate with local police and fire agencies and to compensate local government for any services needed. BY Unknown Publication Coalition To Protect California's Budget & Economy

Here we go again. Lets see how creative we can get in order to come up with enough dough to keep the state running. Raising taxes is off the table, so shoot your best shot. How about this? Lets increase the revenue of the tax that is not a tax. Brilliant! What is the tax that is not a tax? It is called gaming revenue or scourge tax. When you gamble in an Indian casino, the state gets a share of whatever you lose and if you win enough it also gets a share of that too. What is wrong with that? Everything. Gambling isn't healthy and shouldn't be something that government encourages. The ills of gambling are well documented. People who can least afford to lose tend to contribute the majority of the gaming revenue. Hence, an even wider divide between rich and poor. I don't know what kind of man Gov. Schwarzenegger see himself before God as, but he has to know there is a moral issue at play here. The state looking to gambling money as the solution for its budget woes puts all the hard working men and women in the state at risk. Instead of making the hard choices to get the state's fiscal house in order, the governor goes after the low hanging fruit. He is touting a proposal that suggest we can live contently for several years to come off the fruit of ill-gotten gain. Governor, this is not a good Christian thing to do. Maybe you are not a Christian; but it still isn't a good thing to do. This is nothing more than another cowardly back-door tax. The governor is afraid to come out and say "I need to raise taxes or we are going to have to change some things", so he finds consolation in trying to pimp the Indian tribes. Be a man governor, don't hide behind the school kiddies, old people and fire fighters in this debate because they will not see any of the money if this thing goes into affect. Your failure to clean house in Sacramento and make the hard choices has put us so deep in the red until we are at the point of desperation. Good job governor your lack of morals make you the right man for the job in these tough budgetary times. BY The Mooche Publication Mooche News