Will Campbell

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 10:02:38 -0800

I'm voting no for one reason: Arnold. He will always be an illegitimate usurper who exploited the process and voter discontent to gain the governor's office, so pretty much anything he supports I'm either outright against or greeting with the utmost skepticism.

Original Pechanga

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 09:45:48 -0800

These compacts are not the best deals that our politicians can make. Here's some reasons to vote NO: Because these are flawed compacts and we can have our politicians do better by us. If it doesn’t pass the smell test, DON’T DO IT. There are no guarantees of $9 billion. Even the commercials state “up to $9 billion. That only happens if every slot they put in averages the same win as the machines they have now. That ain’t gonna happen. If you can find 500 empty machines now on a Wednesday at Agua Caliente, and Sycuan, how many empties will you have when they add 10,000 more machines? I make that 11,000 empties, not generating money for CA. Because the tribes will be the auditors of their own businesses. Can you say, “two sets of books”? If you are a business owner, you know what that means. Because only 4 of 108 CA tribes will benefit from these compacts, all 1800 people. If the state gets $9 billion, the tribes get $36 billion $9B for 33,000,000 = $36B for 1800 Wouldn’t 50-50 split be a better deal for CA? Because one of the tribes, Pechanga is a violator of civil rights. Why reward them for that? We stopped doing business with South Africa, because of just those reasons. Should we grant a huge increase in income to a tribe that has eliminated so many people. Because it just doesn’t feel right. Why would the tribes try to keep us from voting on the propositions, and then spend $65 million on trying to convince us to vote yes? Follow the money, who benefits most? Those against the props, or those for it? Who is spending the most? The Yes tribes are spend $65 million and the No group is spending $10 million. Because Californians don’t have $65 billion sitting around waiting for casinos to add more slots. You have to believe that the only reason that we aren’t getting the money NOW is because there are not enough slot machines to go around. That money we have is being spent on clothes, cars, retail goods, restaurants. That means that we will already get $8 billion of the discretionary income spent in taxes, that money would go away with these compacts. The tribes will be the beneficiaries, not the people of California. This should be 7a: Economists estimate that revenue diverted from other economic activity to slot machines will result in a net loss of about $138 million in state and local tax revenues. As a result, the net gain to the state could be just one-third of the $9.9 billion that supporters of the compacts estimate. That means, $3.3 billion for us, $16.5 billion for the 4 tribes. Still think this is a good compact? Because Pechanga has eliminated 25% of their tribe. Why do they need more money? Who are they going to ‘take care of”? They have already kicked elders and kids to the curb, and took their money. So you can vote NO on 94 just for that. A NO vote will not END Indian gaming, it will simply tell our politicians to get these compacts right. And A NO vote on 94 will tell Pechanga that we do not approve of their civil rights violations.

LAist: LAist Guide to the Primary: Propositions 94, 95, 96, 97

Will Campbell

Original Pechanga