Thursday, March 6, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
"Indian gaming has become a strong economic engine," said state Sen. Richard Polanco, D-Los Angeles. "It has taken people off of welfare and into jobs; it has revitalized communities both on the reservation and off; it has replaced illiteracy with education; it has replaced substance abuse with treatment; it has replaced poverty with prosperity."
U.S. attorneys have informed California tribes that they must reach casino operation agreements with the state by March 31, or face enforcement actions by federal regulators.
If the tribes fail to reach the agreements, they would have until May 1 to remove their lucrative video slot machines, which state and federal officials say are illegal under state law.
By March 15, the tribes are supposed to confirm that they will adhere to that schedule - or, again, they may face enforcement actions.
Officials have said the enforcement actions would avoid confrontational moves such as seizing games or arresting people.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers sided Wednesday with Polanco at a Capitol news conference, including Sens. Cathie Wright, R-Simi Valley; Diane Watson, D-Los Angeles; and Barbara Lee, D-Oakland; and Assemblymembers Tom McClintock, R-Simi Valley; Martha Escutia, D-Huntington Park; and Tony Cardenas, D-Pocoima.
"I don't believe you can mandate to the governor and the negotiating Indian tribes from the judiciary," said Wright. "Their action should come after any agreement has been reached."
Lee called the attorneys' demands "a hostile act."
"We know both the federal government and the state governments are promoting self-sufficiency and self-empowerment," she said. "It makes no sense, when you have a group of people which has proven it knows how to become empowered ... to interfere in that activity."
The administration of Gov. Pete Wilson and the tribes are in the fourth month of negotiations over the number and types of games tribes can offer. The tribes say they are sovereign nations and should not be told what they can and cannot do on their reservations.
But under the federal laws which permitted Indians to operate casinos, they may only offer games which are already legal in the states where they are located.
California does not permit the types of games at issue, going so far as to strike down the California Lottery's Keno game on similar grounds.
More than 13,000 of the devices are operated in California by more than three dozen tribes, the attorney general's office has said.
Wilson said Wednesday that, whether their good intentions, the lawmakers should not interfere.
"They're urging the U.S. attorney not to do his duty - to ignore violations of U.S. law," Wilson said. "The tribes that have received that ultimatum from the U.S. attorneys are engaged in illegal gaming."
Gambling interests are major contributors to political campaigns. But Polanco said the lawmakers who joined him at Wednesday's news conference were motivated by principle, not money.
"There are many of us here who will support Indian gaming continuously, irrespective of what contributions may or may not have occurred," Polanco said.
The tribes have mounted a $1 million television advertising campaign to show how casinos have improved life on the reservations and delivered their members from welfare dependence.
Barbara Murphy, chief executive of a Redding-area tribe, said her tribe's casino is now the fifth-largest employer in the area, behind the state and area hospitals. Revenue from the casino has cut unemployment from near 48 percent to zero, helped send nine people to college and put 40 children in Head Start programs, Murphy said.
"I could go on and on," she said.
archive
