As our Democrat Governor tries to improve her odds at winning a bet on a state gambling monopoly in northern New England, AP is reporting hard times for the Indian Casino monopoly in the southern part of New England. The Indian tribes, who got the law changed to allow them to put up casinos as a way to pay for their needs way back when, got so busy relying on other peoples gambling money for their free ride that when that money dried up, (down economy, waste, bad spending decisisons, abuse, because they are entitield) they figured they’d go running back to Uncle Sam for a bailout.
It’s millions of dollars, just sitting there, to which the ‘law’ entitles them, and as the song goes, they aint too proud to beg.
The money provided annually to the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation through the Interior Department and the Department of Health and Human Services has risen over the last five years to more than $4.5 million, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act. One former tribal employee says department leaders were encouraged to offset dwindling resources by seeking more federal grants.
The Pequots, who once distributed stipends exceeding $100,000 annually to adult members, are not alone among gaming tribes seeking more federal aid. Several, including the owner of Foxwoods’ rival Connecticut casino, the Mohegan Sun, say they have been pursuing more grants — a trend that critics find galling because the law that gave rise to Indian casinos was intended to help tribes become financially self-sufficient.
How many times have I said this? Gambling revenue (not unlike sales and income taxes) are a poor source of tax dollars for any government. When they need it most it will be at its least. That puts a strain on existing spending at a time when the state very often wants to do more. That means seeking new revenue from people who have already demonstrated, through their lack engaging in gambling or commerce, that they don’t have it to give. But tribal governments, it seems, are no more competent than any other, nor are those dependent upon them. How many years did every tribal adult get a $100,000.00 stipend? Where did that money go grasshopper?
Why is anyone in that tribe in need of anything from anyone? Because they didn’t earn it, didn’t respect it, and now it is probably gone?
More from the same AP Article
“A billion-dollar gaming enterprise should fully fund the tribal government,” said Weissmuller, (who was chief judge of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Court until 2011) who said that he was forced out of the job by tribal officials who told him he did not appear to have the tribe’s interests at heart on other matters.
Weismuller is not against accepting Federal grants but if we had to make comparisons he must be the tribal equivalent of the TEA Party, asking those inconvenient questions. Which brings us New Hampshire Governor Hassan.
Governor Hassan is committed to Casino revenue. She included it on the revenue (that’s tax) side of her budget, even though no such law permitted them. Meanwhile, the Indian Tribes are struggling so badly with their own investment in casino revenues, that they need the Federal government to come along and help bail them out. So it appears as if Maggie “Squats with lobbyists” Hassan (or how about “Dances with Debits?”) has not only put the cart before the horse, the cart is empty, or as likely to be at any point at which the other Democrats in her tribe are demanding that the state spend even more on top of what is now less.
There are no guaranteed bailouts from the Federal Government for any future failed New Hampshire Casinos, in a New England market that already has too much competition?, so this means that the spending to which our Democrat Governor has already committed–that and so much more–will have to be “bailed out” by New Hampshire taxpayers who, like the tribal members in Connecticut and other places, were probably told–hey! don’t worry, its like–free money. You’ll get stuff for nothing!
You know what else is free? Poverty. But when it is imposed on you through deceit and then by the force and will of your government, around our little Tribe at the Grok, we prefer to call that legislated tyranny.
You are reading Maybe Maggie “Squats With Lobbyists” Hassan Just Wants A Casino Bailout? by Steve Mac Donald originally posted at GraniteGrok.com (Home)
Steve has been recognized as the Americans For Prosperity Blogger of the month for December 2012
