Assemblyman Chuck Devore Press Release - Threats to California Tribal Gaming

The following is a press release from Assemblyman Chuck Devore(R-Irvine)

http://216.109.157.86/press_release/Federal%20money%20for%20high-speed%20rail%20card%20check%20and%20the%20threat%20to%20California%20tribal%20gaming%20050609.htm

Federal money for high-speed rail, card check, and the threat to California tribal gaming

By Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine)

Federal legislation backed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and California Senator Barbara Boxer are a dagger poised at the heart of California’s Native American tribes. Most Californians are unaware of the impact of two federal bills, one, now law, and the other, pending.

There are 107 federally-recognized tribes in California, of which 58 are engaged in government-approved gaming activities. These 58 tribes employ 59,900 workers, have sent nearly $236 million in revenue-sharing funds to non-gaming tribes, spend tens of millions of dollars per year to improve infrastructure on non-tribal lands, and annually spend hundreds of millions of dollars buying goods and services from off-reservation vendors and suppliers.

While many people oppose gambling on moral or social grounds, the fact is, that when California voters approved a state lottery to aid education, it made it legally possible for California’s tribal governments to operate casinos as well – of course, the odds at these casinos are far better than offered by the Lottery. In addition, tribes have paid over $722 million into a fund to support problem gambling prevention programs and to reimburse government for the costs associated with gaming operations.

There are two dire threats to California’s gaming tribes.

First, the recently passed $787 billion stimulus package dedicates over one percent of that money, $8 billion, to build high-speed rail lines. Many budget experts expect a significant amount of that money to be spent to build a new government 269-mile magnetic levitation train line from Anaheim to Las Vegas.

If this federally-funded project gets built, it will hit California taxpayers twice. It hits Californians in the pocketbook to pay for it, and then it hits them again by expanding Las Vegas casino market share at the expense of California’s tribal casinos by making it easier and less expensive to travel to Las Vegas than to a California casino. If a high-speed train to Las Vegas made business sense, then Nevada casinos and the California tourist industry would have funded it years ago, rather than asking the Senator from Las Vegas to slip it into the supposedly “pork-free” stimulus law.

The second threat is the so-called “Employee Free Choice Act,” a measure designed to force workplace unionization by ending secret ballots and replacing them with the card check system. Card check requires an individual employee to publicly announce a preference regarding union representation. This invites coercion from all sources, especially a union, which can visit an employee at their home to pressure them for their card, hence, their vote for unionization. Interestingly, California’s tribal gaming operations enjoy low employee turnover and high employee satisfaction – one of the main reasons why unionization efforts have largely failed in the past. Card check also undermines deeply-ingrained tribal traditions of making important decisions by secret ballot. The Employee Free Choice Act would end up forcing unionization on California’s tribal gaming operations – making them to operate with the same union rules and costs that burden Las Vegas casinos.

Acts in faraway Washington D.C. threaten to undo years of progress made by California’s Native American tribes – and in the process, transfer billions of additional dollars out of state to Nevada. Californians who both oppose and support legal tribal gaming should unite in opposition to these measures.

Mr. DeVore (R.-Irvine) represents almost a half million people in California in the State Assembly and is a candidate for U.S. Senate in 2010 against Barbara Boxer. He retired as a lieutenant colonel after 24-years of service in the Army National Guard.

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore
California's 70th Assembly District
(916) 319-2070 - Capitol Office
(916) 319-2170 - Capitol Fax
(949) 863-7070 - District Office
(949) 863-9337 - District Fax
Chuck.DeVore@asm.ca.gov