California's Special Gaming Fund is Headed Towards Insolvency. Is it Time to END the Monopoly We Voted To Give Indian Tribes?

Governor Jerry Brown, who accepted tens of thousands of dollars from gaming tribes of California has now said there will be no more distributions from the Special Gaming fund, which is headed toward insolvency. TEXT The Press Enterprise has the story No county has benefited from the tribe-supported fund as much as Riverside, which has received $89.6 million since 2003, almost one-half of the mitigation money allocated statewide. San Bernardino County has received $12.6 million, about 6 percent of the total. Now the account is sliding toward insolvency. Revised gaming agreements have redirected some tribes’ payments, shrinking the fund’s balance to $5 million in June 2013, down from $115 million in 2010 and nearly $200 million in the middle of the past decade. “It’s certainly on a downward trend,” said Riverside County Supervisor John Benoit, who leads the local committee that reviews proposals to spend the money. Its demise, he said, is among the contributors to local agencies’ budget problems. Last fall, $9 million in fund money was appropriated to local communities, with $2.5 million going to agencies in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Gov. Jerry Brown, though, has ruled out any future appropriations until a “frank discussion” about the fund’s future, he said in a statement when he signed the bill. OP: Is it time to end the monopoly on gaming that we voted to give to Indian tribes? They have, in some cases proved to be much less than honorable, with local tribes Pechanga and Pala now leading that category. The link above has the rest of the story.