Spencer: Tribe doesn’t deserve praise

Letter to Coeur d’Alene Press editor from Larry Spencer:

Every other year, those who attend a Republican fundraising dinner will hear a rousing speech from our governor who boasts that while other states spend more than they bring in, he is proud to have held the line and didn’t sign a budget until it was balanced with no deficit spending. Ignoring the rousing applause from the audience, I always wonder why he doesn’t mention that the Idaho Constitution requires a balanced budget. Likewise, when the Coeur d’Alene Tribe sends the press a release that proudly shows that the tribe has in their great benevolence given money to “education” I tend to gag a little. Each tribe (called a dependent nation-state by the U.S. government) is required to enter into a gaming compact with the state they are in in order to have a casino. In Idaho, the tribes are required to give 5 percent of their net profit to educational entities, which is one of the weakest compacts in America. More here.

Agree/disagree with Spencer’s letter?