SacBee: Why Are Casino Payments Secret? Let's Quit Going to Tribal Casinos UNTIL we know where the Money is.

The Sacramento Bee has an editorial that all Californians should look at.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger regularly asks that Californians "trust" him. OP: Uh, yeah, we've already apologized to Gray Davis for voting him out. Arnold deserves no trust.

Two years ago this month, the governor promised that if voters approved compacts authorizing significant expansion of four Indian-owned casinos in Southern California, the tribes would pay the state "hundreds of millions of dollars" annually. OP: Remember that one of the tribes, SYCUAN, hadn't even gotten the expansion approved by their tribe! We told you about that HERE

He made the promise in California's official voter pamphlet, and declared that the state would reap "billions in the years ahead to help pay for public safety, education, and other services."

Tribes that benefited from the deals spent $82 million on their campaign. Voters approved the deals, as they have done repeatedly when Indian gambling goes before them. OP: Not before Pechanga spend 50 million more than the other tribes. They didn't believe that votes like them anymore, because of the bad press they generated.

Two years later, as the state is mired in a budget crisis, the public ought to be able to find out how many "hundreds of millions" have been delivered to state coffers. The question is timely now that the Morongo Band of Mission Indians is seeking the right to operate Internet poker in exchange for payments to the state. OP: Our cousin recently wrote a post on the need for open audits. Raise your hands if you believe the tribes would operate with two sets of books!

Morongo is one of the four tribes whose compacts voters ratified in 2008. The deal authorizes Morongo to operate 7,500 lucrative slot machines, up from its past cap of 2,000.

So how much have the four tribes paid the state since the 2008 vote? The California Gambling Control Commission says the information is not public. OP: How much the tribe pays to the PEOPLE of CA, for the monopoly we GAVE them is NOT OUR BUSINESS? We MUST have that right, otherwise, we will have politicians taking money from tribes and not reporting it...


The Schwarzenegger-negotiated compacts exempt information that tribes provide to the state from disclosure under the California Public Records Act. As a result, the amounts that individual tribes pay to the state is secret.

That exemption is bad enough. But surely the public is entitled to know what the aggregate amount is that the four tribes have paid into the state coffers – especially given that the governor told voters in the official voter handbook that the deals would deliver "hundreds of millions" a year.

Schwarzenegger asks us to "trust" him. We rather follow the advice of another governor, Ronald Reagan:

Trust but verify.

And since we can't verify...... how can we trust Arnold? How about this: QUIT going to tribal casinos until we get a clear accounting of their fund payments to US.

California Indian Gaming Associations OUSTS Miranda of Pechanga as Chairman

The California Nations Indian Gaming Association (CNIGA), the largest tribal gaming association in the state, announced today the election of Daniel J. Tucker to the position of chairman and Steve Stallings to the position of the organization's treasurer.

Leon Benner, from the Redding Rancheria, a tribe that denies civil rights to many members of its tribe, was reelected Eastern Representative and Cody Martinez, Treasurer of the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, was elected as Southern Representative.


Chairman Tucker, who is also the chairman of the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, of which Governor Schwarzenegger lied to the state about their compact for expanded gaming, previously served as chairman of CNIGA between 1995 and 2001. He was at the helm during the organization's formative years and led it through many of tribal gaming's most significant milestones in California including the Proposition 5 and 1A campaigns and the original round of compacting with the state in 1999 in which 61 tribes signed agreements. These propositions led to many tribes such as Pechanga, Picayune, Redding and Enterprise among others to ELIMINATE many of their tribal members to engorge their wallets with extra per capita monies.

"I would also like to acknowledge the good work done by Anthony Miranda (brother of Pechanga Development Corporations David Miranda)during his six-year term as Chairman of the organization. Miranda's hard work and dedication steered the organization through a significant developmental phase and helped create prosperity throughout Indian Country."

Stallings, a tribal council member of the Rincon Band of Luiseno Indians, brings a wealth of experience to the CNIGA treasurer's position. He is currently the senior vice-president and Director of the Native American Banking Services group for Wells Fargo.

Both Chairman Tucker and Treasurer Stallings were elected to two-year terms.

Founded in 1988, the California Nations Indian Gaming Association is a non-profit association comprised of federally recognized tribal governments dedicated to the protection of tribal sovereignty and the right of tribes to conduct gaming on their lands. Tribal government gaming operations currently employ more than 58,000 Californians. Tribes like Pechanga have had to eliminate workers with the poor economy. Many tribes have dropped out of CNIGA: Dropping long-held memberships in recent years include: Pechanga; Cabazon Band of Mission Indians; Torres Martinez Band of Desert Cahuilla Indians; Twentynine Palms Band of Mission Indians; Soboba Band of Mission Indians; and Augustine Band of Cahuilla Indians.