Gaming News

Ho-Chunk misses payment

WISCONSIN -- As reported by the Jackson County Chronicle: "The Ho-Chunk tribe missed an initial budget deadline Monday to pay an estimated $72 million in gambling money that state officials are counting on to help balance an already stressed state budget.

"It's now been more than two years since the tribe, locked in a legal battle with the state over its gambling compact, has made any of the disputed payments on its casino operations.

"The lingering dispute raises the question of whether the state will receive nearly $100 million in estimated payments expected by June 2009 in time to prevent a gaping hole in a budget that could force lawmakers to raise taxes, cut services or borrow money to make up the difference.

"The missed deadline — Monday was the end of the first fiscal year of the current two-year budget — comes a little over a month after state officials approved a $527 million budget fix to cover a shortfall caused by the souring economy.

"...The dispute revolves around money that the state is seeking under a gambling compact Gov. Jim Doyle signed with the tribe in 2003 giving the Ho-Chunk perpetual gambling rights and additional games in exchange for much larger payments to the state. A state Supreme Court decision invalidated a similar compact with another tribe in 2004.

"Ho-Chunk officials have said that, because of the court decision, the tribe doesn't owe the amount the state is seeking but is willing to negotiate a new gambling compact..."

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