"[Minnesota Gov.] Pawlenty insists that what he seeks from the tribes is a "fair share." But if fairness means treatment on par with other businesses in the state, the governor's demand is way off the mark. He seeks $350 million per year, against total annual casino revenues that a tribal spokesman pegged at $1 billion, after prizes are awarded but before expenses are paid. All other enterprises combined paid the state $590 million in corporate income tax in 2001, the most recent year for which figures are compiled, against total taxable net income, minus prior-year losses, of $7.7 billion.

The governor says that his proposed payments are not taxes, but the price of a guarantee of an exclusive franchise, something that the tribes have enjoyed on a de facto basis to date without having to pay the state for the privilege.

But the price Pawlenty is asking is steep, for a situation that has benefitted all of Minnesota. Confining casinos to tribal ownership has brought a measure of prosperity to chronically impoverished Minnesotans (though the wealth is far from uniformly shared) while keeping gambling's come-on fairly unintrusive and its operations free of scandal."

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Editorial: A casino tax/Pawlenty goes too far (The Minneapolis Star Tribune 10/30
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