Casino compacts blocked Democrats halt 22,000 new slot machines

Democrats on Thursday blocked new compacts that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger negotiated with five of the state's richest casino tribes, stalling action on more than 22,000 new slot machines until next year.

Democratic leaders refused to vote on one bill ratifying the agreements, saying the governor sent details of the compacts too late for proper scrutiny before the end of the legislative session at midnight Thursday. Assembly Democrats defeated a second bill that would have granted a third casino to the Agua Caliente tribe in Palm Springs.

Democrats blamed the Schwarzenegger administration, which signed some of the agreements with tribes just this week. The compacts, which would renegotiate existing agreements, need legislative approval before they can take effect.

Collectively, the new agreements would eventually increase the number of slot machines in the state by a third. The 30-year agreements could bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue for the state and for the tribes.

Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, said Democratic Assembly members were "pretty irritated that all these compacts came to us at such a late time in the session."

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, issued a statement saying, "We regret the disappointment and any financial burden to the tribal nations due to the lateness of the administration."

Schwarzenegger spokesman Darrel Ng said the governor waited until he negotiated the best deals he felt he could get before sending the agreements to the Legislature.

But Democrats and Republicans said the problem wasn't just the timing. Democrats withheld their votes in the midst of a clash between two powerful interests: the tribes and organized labor.

Unions opposed the deals because they did not contain a provision allowing labor representatives to unionize workers by collecting signed cards. Instead, the compacts would default to the method of organizing allowed in most existing compacts: having casino employees vote via a secret ballot, a method thought to favor employers.

Some of the deals Schwarzenegger negotiated with tribes in the past have allowed the organizing method the unions prefer.

"The problem was with people like me that would have supported the compacts but would never do that without the appropriate worker protection," said Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, who was one of 23 members to vote against the Agua Caliente deal, Assembly Bill 2399.

Thirty-five Assembly members, including most Republicans, voted for the measure, which needed six more votes to pass.

"I really thought there could have been a win-win situation that would allow the tribes to make plenty of money without having to do it on the backs of the workers," Koretz said.

Sen. Jim Battin, R-Palm Desert, who represents the area where the Agua Caliente tribe has its casinos, criticized Democrats' decision not to act before the end of the session.

"The Democrats made a decision that they're not going to support their Indian friends, but their union masters," Battin said.

Tribal leaders and union representatives spent hours lobbying in Capitol hallways Thursday.

Jack Gribbon, an official with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union, said the unions would never back compacts "with no enforceable organizing rights. No way."

For their part, tribes said the agreements are friendly to labor.

"There have been a lot of misconceptions out there," said Alva Johnson, a representative of the Agua Caliente band. "We believe (secret ballots) are a fair way to organize."

In addition to the Agua Caliente Band of Mission Indians, tribes with stalled agreements include the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, the Pechanga Band of Mission Indians, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians and the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Indians.

Some poorer tribes were also caught up in the stalemate.

The bill expanding gambling rights for the casino tribes also would have extended 99 slot machines to the Yurok tribe of Humboldt and Del Norte counties for the first time. The Los Coyotes Tribe, whose attempt to get a casino stalled in the Legislature earlier this year amid opposition from the Agua Caliente band and other wealthy tribes, also went home empty-handed.

"One is always sensitive to those who need the most help," Nunez said. "Unfortunately, the circumstances didn't lend themselves to that."