A Losing Gamble

Minnesota's governor, Tim Pawlenty, has become something of a poster child for antitax Republicans. He has even been declared presidential material by such conservative lights as Paul Weyrich. Besides being young and quite good-looking in an aw-shucks sort of way, he won election in 2002 on a no-new-taxes pledge, and he's sticking to it--with predictable results. Most notably, Minnesota public schools have taken a dive, a development that probably cost the GOP dearly in the November election, when it lost thirteen seats in the Minnesota House.

It's clear that pressure to fund the public sector in this traditionally progressive state, where Democrats control the Senate and nearly regained the House in 2004, is getting dangerously high from Pawlenty's viewpoint. He would like to salvage the situation with gambling money. Bucking both the state GOP platform and his own earlier declarations of principle, he's been pushing hard for an expansion of Indian gaming, with the state taking a cut of the proceeds.

Variations of this scenario are being played out around the country. Tribal casino revenues last year were about $18.5 billion, according to the National Indian Gaming Association, and Indian gambling is an increasingly tempting target for cash-strapped states and municipalities. In California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is counting on it to help close the state's projected $8 billion budget shortfall.

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