Governor, the tribes have already paid this money into the funds and it should have been dispersed already. You are playing a shell game with our cities money and with our votes. You said gambling compacts would be good for California, and you allow Sycuan to get away with NOT paying $30 million that we need. You knew they hadn't passed the compact. GIVE OUR CITIES the money the Tribes have already paid for. YOU KNOW that money will go away soon anyway as you hide it in the general fund.
Valley leaders fear that loss of money could have big impactDebra GruszeckiThe Desert Sun
SACRAMENTO - The $30 million freeze on the Indian Gaming Special Distribution Fund has prompted a field trip to Sacramento by a contingent of Riverside County and Coachella Valley leaders.
The delegation - including leaders from Cathedral City, Coachella, Indio and Palm Springs - is expected to testify today that Assembly Bill 1389 offered by Majority Floor Leader Alberto Torrico offers positive reform.
But it falls short, they plan to say, because it lacks an amendment to reauthorize the inclusion of the $30 million in tribal Special Distribution Fund monies that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed from the 2007-08 budget bill.
That fund put more than $13 million in Riverside County in the fiscal year that ends next week.
The veto followed a California State Audit report that found some California counties outside of Riverside had spent casino mitigation funds on questionable items such as a $170,000 rescue ambulance boat for Lake Havasu with no Indian casinos near the lake.
Palm Springs City Manager David Ready said Riverside County and cities impacted by the casinos complied with all regulations involving these funds,
Rest of the story HERE
Showing posts with label No on Prop. 94-97. Show all posts
Showing posts with label No on Prop. 94-97. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
The Governator KNEW! SYCUAN:Compact not signed; $30 Million Shortfall to California.
UPDATE: Curiously, Sycuan donated $45,000 to Arnold backed initiatives last November. The Gov says that's a CO-incidence. Believe it or don't. More in the LA TIMES article HERE:
$30 MILLION in 4 months LOST to Californians because SYCUAN LIED to us. We know they all LIED to us about the amount we would get, but it's amazing that the government didn't TELL us that Sycuan didn't sign the compact yet.
Oh, yeah, Pechanga, have you paid your bill YET?
Sycuan withholds gambling pact OK Long a secret, the delay is costing state millions Cost State $8 million per month; Shwarzenegger KNEW before the Vote
By James P. Sweeney
SACRAMENTO – As four California Indian tribes waged one of the most expensive ballot fights in U.S. history last winter, they promised that gambling deals hanging in the balance would pay the state a huge bounty, more than $10 billion over 23 years.
To collect, voters had to approve the four big compacts, the tribes urged in a $100 million media blitz.
But one of the tribes was keeping a secret – it had not yet approved its own gaming agreement, even though a deadline to do so had long since passed.
The Sycuan band of El Cajon still has not ratified its revised compact, and the delay is expected to cost the state at least $30 million, the Schwarzenegger administration recently disclosed.
Story HERE EDITED to take out Soboba in my first line.
$30 MILLION in 4 months LOST to Californians because SYCUAN LIED to us. We know they all LIED to us about the amount we would get, but it's amazing that the government didn't TELL us that Sycuan didn't sign the compact yet.
Oh, yeah, Pechanga, have you paid your bill YET?
Sycuan withholds gambling pact OK Long a secret, the delay is costing state millions Cost State $8 million per month; Shwarzenegger KNEW before the Vote
By James P. Sweeney
SACRAMENTO – As four California Indian tribes waged one of the most expensive ballot fights in U.S. history last winter, they promised that gambling deals hanging in the balance would pay the state a huge bounty, more than $10 billion over 23 years.
To collect, voters had to approve the four big compacts, the tribes urged in a $100 million media blitz.
But one of the tribes was keeping a secret – it had not yet approved its own gaming agreement, even though a deadline to do so had long since passed.
The Sycuan band of El Cajon still has not ratified its revised compact, and the delay is expected to cost the state at least $30 million, the Schwarzenegger administration recently disclosed.
Story HERE EDITED to take out Soboba in my first line.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Pechanga Chairman Macarro AGAIN Caught Lying
OP: This time it's in the latest commercial that he's fronting.
From John Gomez, AIRRO:
The Big 4 Tribes sent out a new bi-lingual mailer asking California voters to vote Yes on their sweetheart deals. The mailer, entitled "Sharing with those in need" states that the gaming tribes will share tens of millions of dollars with tribes that have little or no gaming revenue. In fact, Mark Macarro claims that "limited gaming... has brought prosperity to our people...lifting us out of poverty..." Macarro goes on to state that ".., we believe all members of our sovereign nations should share in our prosperity."
This all sounds warm and fuzzy, and if it were true, Indian Gaming in California could be considered a success. Unfortunately, the claims made in the new mailer are misrepresentations of the actual circumstances surrounding the Big 4 deals.
Currently, non-gaming tribes receive $1.1 million a year under the 1999 compacts signed with the State. However, the Big 4 deals would provide billions of dollars for the Big 4 tribes over the life of the agreements, and the non-gaming tribes will not get a penny more than what was already allocated in the 1999 compacts. You see, the new deals fail to provide additional funding for non-gaming tribes. The rich get richer, and the poorer, smaller tribes make do with less.
And, while it is true that the members of the Big 4 tribes would prosper immensely, Macarro failed to state that the number of members in his own tribe, the Pechanga Band of Temecula, has been reduced drastically since Props 5 and 1A allowed for gaming on California Indian reservations. In 2004 and 2006, just prior to tribal elections in which Macarro ran for re-election as Tribal Chair, a total of nearly 300 members were kicked out of the tribe.
As a result, Macarro and his cronies won their re-election bids and all remaining members of the tribe saw their per capita payments increase from $15,000 per month to the nearly $40,000 per month they receive now. While Macarro and his followers prosper, those who were kicked out of the tribe have been denied medical care, elder and child benefits, and education assistance that were provided based on their status as tribal members. Most must now avail themselves of State and federal government programs at tax payer expense.
Membership does indeed have its privileges, and, as far as I can tell, those who would actually benefit from these deals are members of the Big 4 tribes themselves- a small number of California Indians which, based on the actions of Macarro and his cronies, is getting smaller.
OP: In KNBC's WITHOUT A TRIBE, Macarro was caught lying in the FIRST 15 seconds of the piece. During a General Meeting of the Temecula Band, Macarro, is clarifying a petition brought forth by CNIGA President Anthony Miranda to stop all disenrollment activities, he said, when asked if this included the Hunter Family, "ALL MEANS ALL" and yet, he conspired with his tribal council to unconstitutionally eliminate the Hunter family. (Pechanga Constitution and Bylaws.
From John Gomez, AIRRO:
The Big 4 Tribes sent out a new bi-lingual mailer asking California voters to vote Yes on their sweetheart deals. The mailer, entitled "Sharing with those in need" states that the gaming tribes will share tens of millions of dollars with tribes that have little or no gaming revenue. In fact, Mark Macarro claims that "limited gaming... has brought prosperity to our people...lifting us out of poverty..." Macarro goes on to state that ".., we believe all members of our sovereign nations should share in our prosperity."
This all sounds warm and fuzzy, and if it were true, Indian Gaming in California could be considered a success. Unfortunately, the claims made in the new mailer are misrepresentations of the actual circumstances surrounding the Big 4 deals.
Currently, non-gaming tribes receive $1.1 million a year under the 1999 compacts signed with the State. However, the Big 4 deals would provide billions of dollars for the Big 4 tribes over the life of the agreements, and the non-gaming tribes will not get a penny more than what was already allocated in the 1999 compacts. You see, the new deals fail to provide additional funding for non-gaming tribes. The rich get richer, and the poorer, smaller tribes make do with less.
And, while it is true that the members of the Big 4 tribes would prosper immensely, Macarro failed to state that the number of members in his own tribe, the Pechanga Band of Temecula, has been reduced drastically since Props 5 and 1A allowed for gaming on California Indian reservations. In 2004 and 2006, just prior to tribal elections in which Macarro ran for re-election as Tribal Chair, a total of nearly 300 members were kicked out of the tribe.
As a result, Macarro and his cronies won their re-election bids and all remaining members of the tribe saw their per capita payments increase from $15,000 per month to the nearly $40,000 per month they receive now. While Macarro and his followers prosper, those who were kicked out of the tribe have been denied medical care, elder and child benefits, and education assistance that were provided based on their status as tribal members. Most must now avail themselves of State and federal government programs at tax payer expense.
Membership does indeed have its privileges, and, as far as I can tell, those who would actually benefit from these deals are members of the Big 4 tribes themselves- a small number of California Indians which, based on the actions of Macarro and his cronies, is getting smaller.
OP: In KNBC's WITHOUT A TRIBE, Macarro was caught lying in the FIRST 15 seconds of the piece. During a General Meeting of the Temecula Band, Macarro, is clarifying a petition brought forth by CNIGA President Anthony Miranda to stop all disenrollment activities, he said, when asked if this included the Hunter Family, "ALL MEANS ALL" and yet, he conspired with his tribal council to unconstitutionally eliminate the Hunter family. (Pechanga Constitution and Bylaws.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
San Jose Mercury News Says STOP GAMBLING EXPANSION
As the awareness of the gambling expansion propositions, that give entirely too much of California's money away to four tribes grows to 70%, more newpapers come to the side of NO on Pechanga and NO to expanded gambling.
Here is part of the San Jose Mercury's editorial:
It's real money, but a small percentage of the state's current $14.5 billion budget shortfall. Overall, income from the compacts would be no more than half of 1 percent of the budget.
For the state to get $200 million, Californians will have to lose more than $800 million at the slots. Some might have been lost in Las Vegas anyway. But much of it will come out of other entertainment spending in local communities, and some will come out of mortgage payments, college savings or productive business investments.
Gambling addiction splits families and ruins lives, and a spike in the amount of gambling will take a toll. San Jose saw this during its last major expansion of cardroom gambling in the 1990s. After Bay 101 opened, specializing in Asian games, local human service agencies saw waves of Asian domestic violence victims - a rarity before - and families in financial distress.
Casinos have made some tribes, like these four, extremely rich.
A fund spreads some of the profits to non-gaming tribes, but many Native Americans still languish in poverty, and these new compacts will not be much help. They're definitely not what Californians signed up for when they approved Indian gaming in 1998 to help struggling tribes.
At the governor's request, the federal Department of the Interior has published the new gaming compacts in the Federal Register, which makes them part of federal law. That could supersede California law, which is the subject of the referendum.
An unusual - some would say suspicious - chain of events led to this, including a mysterious disappearance of the compacts for a period. The Interior Department's inspector general is investigating, and the governor's role deserves close scrutiny as well - particularly if it ends up thwarting the voters' will. It's hard to believe he didn't know what he was doing.
This is the kind of shady dealing that dogs large-scale gambling wherever it takes place. It's all the more reason to say no to Propositions 94 through 97, and hope it's not too late
OP: Pechanga members currently are making $400,000 a year (Corrected). Good for them. HOWEVER, to get this much, they targeted TWO large families, that represented voting blocs, and terminated their membership, even though the tribe's OWN HIRED EXPERT PROVED that they were Pechanga people. See this LINK In the news report, the Pechanga Chairman Mark Macarro is caught in a lie the first 15 seconds of the spot and more lies further in the article. But take a look, who looks more comfortable in presenting it's case; the tribal leader who has spoken before THOUSANDS, or the educator, who has the most experience tracing ancestry and who was PAID to prove that Paulina Hunter was NOT Pechanga, but found that wasn't true, she was? See it for yourself. Macarro is a liar, thus his motives are suspect, AND SINCE PECHANGA will CHEAT it's own people, why should you trust that they won't CHEAT the people of California? Please check out the links.
Here is part of the San Jose Mercury's editorial:
It's real money, but a small percentage of the state's current $14.5 billion budget shortfall. Overall, income from the compacts would be no more than half of 1 percent of the budget.
For the state to get $200 million, Californians will have to lose more than $800 million at the slots. Some might have been lost in Las Vegas anyway. But much of it will come out of other entertainment spending in local communities, and some will come out of mortgage payments, college savings or productive business investments.
Gambling addiction splits families and ruins lives, and a spike in the amount of gambling will take a toll. San Jose saw this during its last major expansion of cardroom gambling in the 1990s. After Bay 101 opened, specializing in Asian games, local human service agencies saw waves of Asian domestic violence victims - a rarity before - and families in financial distress.
Casinos have made some tribes, like these four, extremely rich.
A fund spreads some of the profits to non-gaming tribes, but many Native Americans still languish in poverty, and these new compacts will not be much help. They're definitely not what Californians signed up for when they approved Indian gaming in 1998 to help struggling tribes.
At the governor's request, the federal Department of the Interior has published the new gaming compacts in the Federal Register, which makes them part of federal law. That could supersede California law, which is the subject of the referendum.
An unusual - some would say suspicious - chain of events led to this, including a mysterious disappearance of the compacts for a period. The Interior Department's inspector general is investigating, and the governor's role deserves close scrutiny as well - particularly if it ends up thwarting the voters' will. It's hard to believe he didn't know what he was doing.
This is the kind of shady dealing that dogs large-scale gambling wherever it takes place. It's all the more reason to say no to Propositions 94 through 97, and hope it's not too late
OP: Pechanga members currently are making $400,000 a year (Corrected). Good for them. HOWEVER, to get this much, they targeted TWO large families, that represented voting blocs, and terminated their membership, even though the tribe's OWN HIRED EXPERT PROVED that they were Pechanga people. See this LINK In the news report, the Pechanga Chairman Mark Macarro is caught in a lie the first 15 seconds of the spot and more lies further in the article. But take a look, who looks more comfortable in presenting it's case; the tribal leader who has spoken before THOUSANDS, or the educator, who has the most experience tracing ancestry and who was PAID to prove that Paulina Hunter was NOT Pechanga, but found that wasn't true, she was? See it for yourself. Macarro is a liar, thus his motives are suspect, AND SINCE PECHANGA will CHEAT it's own people, why should you trust that they won't CHEAT the people of California? Please check out the links.
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