From the Leelanau Enterprise (H/T Indianz):
2 percent funding process begins
County receives 10 applications for aid from tribal program.
Requests for “2-percent” casino revenue funding from the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians will be considered for endorsement by the Leelanau County Board of Commissioners at the board’s executive committee next week.
A board subcommittee this week began reviewing 10 applications for the funding and was expected to present a recommendation Tuesday to the full board on which requests should be forwarded to the Tribal Council for a final decision.
Under a 1993 federal court consent decree, the tribe is required to pay out two percent of its slot machine revenue twice annually to local units of government in the immediate vicinity of tribal casinos. The Grand Traverse Band owns and operates two gaming facilities – the Turtle Creek Casino in Grand Traverse County and the Leelanau Sands Casino in Peshawbestown, neither of which is required to pay local property taxes.
Two years ago, the county board formed a subcommittee that began prioritizing and grading the various two percent requests received by Leelanau County. The subcommittee is tasked with assigning a priority value to each of the two percent requests received by the county, and was still involved in that process this week.
The 10 requests for tribal funding being considered by the county board, in no particular order, include:
• A $75,000 request from the county administrator’s office to help fund construction of a Veterans Memorial at the site of the new county Governmental Center in Suttons Bay Township.
• A $21,000 request from the county Building Inspections department to purchase laptop computers and software for use by inspectors in the field.
• A $30,000 request from Solon Township for land acquisition and bonding related to construction of a municipal sewage treatment system.
• A $70,000 request from the county office of Emergency Management to procure communications equipment for use by local schools.
• A $20,876 request from the county’s Michigan State University Extension office for an educational garden and nutrition program for children.
• A $10,495 request from the county Planning and Community Development department for a new plotter and printer used by the department to produce maps for a variety of purposes.
• A $20,000 request from the county Solid Waste Council to help support the county’s solid waste recycling programs.
• A $54,000 request from Leelanau REACH, the county’s affordable housing agency, for a revolving loan program.
• A $39,000 request from the Northwest Michigan Transportation Alliance and the Bay Area Transportation Authority for a carpooling initiative and car repair program.
• A $39,970 request from the Leelanau County Family Coordinating Council for its family support team, baby pantry and laundry projects.
The Tribal Council has a Dec. 31 deadline to receive “2-percent” requests that must be endorsed by a taxing unit of government anywhere within the tribe’s six-county service area.
Generally, the Tribal Council receives more than twice as many requests as it can accommodate. The Tribal Council will decide in January 2008 which of the requests it will fund. Total winter payouts usually average around $1 million while summer payouts average around $775,000.
Turtle Talk 