13-Apr-1998 Monday
Imagine a world in which wealthy people willingly provide a generous yearly
payment to all their poor relations.
Labor unions aren't just tolerated, they're mandated.
Powerful governments don't duck liability lawsuits, they accept full
responsibility for any harm their mistakes have caused.
Sound like a social democratic utopia?
No, it's all part of the new world of tribal gaming dreamed up by none
other than Republican Gov. Pete Wilson.
These provisions are contained in the 132-page compact that the Wilson
administration negotiated with San Diego County's Pala Indian band to
regulate tribal casinos. The agreement is supposed to serve as the model
for all the state's tribes that run gambling operations.
But the plan's major provisions seem to call for everything that the
governor dislikes -- more unions, more lawsuits and redistributing wealth
from prosperous to impoverished tribes.
Indian leaders from relatively wealthy tribes that oppose the plan wondered
aloud last week how it was that Wilson had suddenly become converted to the
cause of unions.
After all, Wilson has been warring with unions during much of his career.
For the past two years, he has denied raises for unionized state employees.
Right now he is leading the charge on behalf of one of the biggest
anti-union movements in the nation -- a June state ballot proposition that
would make it difficult for unions to contribute to political campaigns.
But in the Pala compact, Wilson decided that unions were a noble way of
raising wages for workers -- at least those on reservations.
He agreed to a provision that requires gaming tribes to recognize unions
for their nongaming employees, including those who work in restaurants and
hotels operated by the tribe.
"Can anybody here remember when Mr. Wilson was backing a union in the state
of California? Never," said John James, chairman of the Cabazon band, which
operates a huge casino.
Wilson, however, is nothing if not a flexible politician.
His decision to include the union provision helped persuade Senate
President Pro Tempore John Burton, D-San Francisco, a champion of unions,
to carry the legislation needed to authorize the compact.
And it forced state Sen. Richard Polanco, D-Los Angeles, the gaming
Indians' best friend in the Legislature, to choose between his two allies
-- unions and tribal opponents of the Pala compact.
Polanco chose the Indians. At the meeting last week he called the union
provisions "unprecedented and unheard-of."
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the compact provides for revenue
sharing among tribes. This from a governor who has argued against higher
rates of taxes on wealthier Californians and has been an unwavering
opponent of the renters tax credit.
Under the deal, nongaming tribes can earn up to $1 million a year from
tribes with large casinos by leasing their allocations of lottery-style
gambling machines.
Wilson's attorney, Daniel Kolkey, who negotiated the deal, said the
revenue-sharing provision -- unique among tribal compacts -- was a way of
both limiting gaming and making sure all tribes benefit.
The 1988 federal law allowing tribes to offer gambling, he said, was
intended to help all Indians, not just those lucky enough to have
reservations in prime locations.
Kolkey added that one aspect of the agreement is in keeping with
conservative Republican principles -- the compact contains no new taxes on
Indian gaming.
And the overall plan is consistent with another Wilson trait -- his uncanny
ability to divide his opponents. The united coalition of tribes that Wilson
once faced has been divided by the compact, which places the tribes that
oppose the compact in a weaker political position.