It’s an apparent case of ‘better late than never.’ The tribal owners of the Four Winds Casino are about to make good on a promise to share revenue with the communities that are closest to the facility.
The break through came today in New Buffalo.
During the first 20-months of operation, the promised payments were placed in an escrow account by the tribe that owns the casino. The account is said to contain at least $6.2 million.
Today the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians started the process of releasing the cash.
“You know I think the five people serving on this board have shown that municipalities can get along,” said Chikaming Township Board Member Jeanne Dudeck. “They can leave the baggage at the door and move on and do positive things for their communities.
Dudeck is one of the five current members of the Pokagon-New Buffalo Area Local Revenue Sharing Board that today, did what other members have been unable to do for the past 20-months.
The board unanimously passed a revenue distribution formula that appeared to please everyone.
“Everyone is going to get some financial compensation for this, so that in my opinion is a very fair system,” said Matt Wesaw who represents the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians on the Revenue Sharing Board. “Everybody is going to get a little piece of the pie and we’re going to get it done quickly.”
The long awaited payoff for local governments should be just a month or two away, according to Wesaw. “These folks have been waiting a long time to get these monies and I think probably within a couple months everybody is going to have theirs.”
Most of the money will simply land in the laps of local officials—handed out much the same way property tax collections are.
In other cases, the locals will have to send a bill. For Example, the Berrien County Sheriff’s Department is now calculating the law enforcement
tab associated with the first 20-months of the casino’s operation.
“If there’s an arrest that was charged under state statute that was connected to the casino, we’ll be able to submit real costs back to the revenue sharing board, so that the time the prosecutor spent in and that time that the law enforcement put in would be reimbursed,” said Berrien County Sheriff Paul Bailey. “That would be real costs.”
The details were passed today as part of the bylaws of the Pokagon-New Buffalo Area Local Revenue Sharing Board.
The bylaws specify that a maximum of four percent of the revenue sharing money will be set aside for the board’s own administrative expenses.
The board’s second obligation will be to pay bills submitted by local governments for specific actual costs incurred.
After the first two obligations are settled, 65-percent of the balance of the tribal payment will be doled out in much the same manner as property tax collections.
For example, if a local unit of government has total millage rate of two mills, and the total millage rate of all local units of government was 32 mills, then the amount of tribal funds the local government would receive would be 2/32 of the total.
The remaining 35-percent of the tribal payment would be distributed under a formula that gives the greatest amount of money to the communities that are closest to the casino.
The disbursements would be as follows:
New Buffalo Township 40%
New Buffalo City 20%
Chikaming Township 10%
Three Oaks Township 10%
Berrien County 7%
Three Oaks Village 5%
Grand Beach Village 2%
Michiana Village 2%
New Buffalo Public Schools 1%
New Buffalo Public Library 1%
Berrien County Intermediate
School District 1%
Lake Michigan College 1%
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