Tribes witholding payment a solid business decision

I'm sure I'm going to catch some heat for this one, but when tribes like the Potowatomi withold their gaming payments from the state, it is a sound business decision on their part. Of course, to see this you have to strip away all of the ancillary issues that enflame people on this topic and look at the gambling compacts between the state and tribes as business contracts. The state allows certain forms of gaming in the state, and in turn the tribes pay a portion of their revenues to the state. The problem right now is that over the years, the legislature and the Governor have horked up their end of the compacts something terrible. The legislature made the huge mistake of conceding compact negotiations to the Governor. In turn, Governor Doyle overstepped his bounds by negotiating an expansion of gambling with the tribes for higher payments. Right now, the tribes are in limbo. They are not getting what they were supposed to be getting from the state. Therefore, they have every right to withold payments. It doesn't really pay to get upset with the tribes. Instead look toward the mess the state has created. That's where the anger needs to be directed.

I think that this is politically smart as well, but that is a topic that is a bit more emotional, and I choose not to get into that in this post. Perhaps another day.