2008 Woodie Awards
Davis mismanaged the California budget
Jonathan Havens--The Battalion (Texas A&M U.)
Issue date: 2/12/03 Section: Opinion
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(U-WIRE) COLLEGE STATION, Texas - California currently faces a $34 billion budget deficit, and California Gov. Gray Davis decided one way to make up for this budget shortfall is to expand casino gambling on Native American Reservations.
According to The New York Times, the casinos have a profit of $5 billion dollars, and the state of California receives less than $100 million of this. The legal agreement that covers a deal between California and the Native American Reservations, called a compact, was negotiated by Davis -- the same hypocritical Davis who said he was "not generally inclined to support measures that allow more than a modest expansion of gaming." Davis is saying one thing and doing another. An L.A. Times article considered California "the fastest growing state in terms of gaming revenue, slot machine growth and employment." The problem is, and continues to be, one of political expediency versus long term benefit for the golden state.
The compact that Davis agreed to in 1999 has been held up as a model of how not to write a compact. According to The New York Times, New York and Connecticut designed compacts that were designed as complete opposites to California's compact, and are considered successes. The compact New York signed with just one tribe resulted in $400 million of revenue with more regulation. California's compact neglected to cover the issues of regulation, oversight and the environment. As a result, conflict between the state and the Native American tribes has ensued.
Davis' answer to the preceding problems is to renegotiate the compact. This idea is fundamentally flawed because Davis cannot legally dissolve one compact and negotiate a new one. Davis has to convince the Native American tribes to give up billions of dollars and subject themselves to new regulation without much to offer them in return. The one bargaining chip Davis holds is that the state has the right to license the number of slot machines within it. To gain greater regulatory control and more revenue, Davis is poised to allow a huge increase in the size of gambling in California to get more money for a budget crisis that he helped create.
If Davis and the California legislature had exercised more restraint and foresight, California would not be facing such a large budget crisis. California would not be considering doubling the size of Native American casinos without thought to the social consequences and costs. The governor has not commented on the social and economic cost of thousands of new gambling addicts. Davis did not allocate money for a gambling addiction treatment program in his new budget, and he clearly sees this as a quick fix without considering long-term consequences. This is the mindset that created this crisis in the first place.
According to The New York Times, the casinos have a profit of $5 billion dollars, and the state of California receives less than $100 million of this. The legal agreement that covers a deal between California and the Native American Reservations, called a compact, was negotiated by Davis -- the same hypocritical Davis who said he was "not generally inclined to support measures that allow more than a modest expansion of gaming." Davis is saying one thing and doing another. An L.A. Times article considered California "the fastest growing state in terms of gaming revenue, slot machine growth and employment." The problem is, and continues to be, one of political expediency versus long term benefit for the golden state.
The compact that Davis agreed to in 1999 has been held up as a model of how not to write a compact. According to The New York Times, New York and Connecticut designed compacts that were designed as complete opposites to California's compact, and are considered successes. The compact New York signed with just one tribe resulted in $400 million of revenue with more regulation. California's compact neglected to cover the issues of regulation, oversight and the environment. As a result, conflict between the state and the Native American tribes has ensued.
Davis' answer to the preceding problems is to renegotiate the compact. This idea is fundamentally flawed because Davis cannot legally dissolve one compact and negotiate a new one. Davis has to convince the Native American tribes to give up billions of dollars and subject themselves to new regulation without much to offer them in return. The one bargaining chip Davis holds is that the state has the right to license the number of slot machines within it. To gain greater regulatory control and more revenue, Davis is poised to allow a huge increase in the size of gambling in California to get more money for a budget crisis that he helped create.
If Davis and the California legislature had exercised more restraint and foresight, California would not be facing such a large budget crisis. California would not be considering doubling the size of Native American casinos without thought to the social consequences and costs. The governor has not commented on the social and economic cost of thousands of new gambling addicts. Davis did not allocate money for a gambling addiction treatment program in his new budget, and he clearly sees this as a quick fix without considering long-term consequences. This is the mindset that created this crisis in the first place.