SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Under pressure from other candidates and the state’s media from taking a large contribution from wealthy Southern California gaming tribes, California Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante turned a large portion of his loot over to a campaign against the so-called racial privacy initiative, Proposition 54.
Bustamante had been under intense pressure in the days following the announcement that he had received a series of donations totaling nearly $2 million from the Viejas Band of Kumayaay Indians. The Bustamante campaign had additionally received other donations from wealthy Southern California tribes in the $200,000 to $300,000 neighborhood.
Tribal donations had become so controversial that other campaigns had taken time to criticize Bustamante and a few candidates have even taken the time to criticize the state’s Indian casinos for not paying their fair share to the state.
Bustamante’s campaign headquarters could not return call before press time.
During a campaign speech last week in Sacramento, gubernatorial candidate and author Arianna Huffington told a crowd of about 100 supporters that she would make tribes with casinos “pay their fair share.”
Later, after Huffington’s speech during an impromptu press conference with the candidate on the steps of the state capitol, Indian Country Today asked, given tribal sovereignty and the state’s lack of authority over taxing tribes, how she would get tribes to raise revenue, possibly against their will. Huffington took a fairly high-handed approach.
“I would not sign a compact for the state that would not guarantee a fair share of the revenue,” said Huffington.
“Classrooms are getting by without books and have rats and roaches while these casinos are making millions in profits for often small groups of individuals.”
Currently tribes pay into two funds that are administered by the state. One of which is a revenue sharing fund to be shared with poorer tribes and the other is to offset mitigation to local communities. However, Huffington was referring to the fact that tribes do not pay into the state General Fund directly, though they contribute indirectly through payroll taxes on their often large work forces.
Huffington would not give a specific revenue figure for what a “fair share” would be. Gov. Davis caused an uproar among tribes earlier this year when he suggested that he might seek additional revenue from them.
Currently the Davis administration has only signed three compacts with tribes and has only raised a fraction of a proposed $680 million he had set as a goal of obtaining from tribes last spring.
Huffington has suggested that Bustamante would be at the bidding of wealthy gaming tribes. She is not the only candidate to make this assertion as a typical part of her campaign rhetoric. Republican hopeful Arnold Schwarzenegger took swipes at Bustamante for accepting tribal donations while at an appearance at the state fair in Sacramento.
