Advanced Forum Search -- Advanced Casino Search

Casino may pay dividends
Message was posted: 09:24 Oct 27th, 2006

User: RickyWalls Rank: Casino Gold: 2984CG Contributor rating: 6320 Status: Offline

Casino news from http://www.zwire.com/ 10/25/2006 The city of Council Bluffs wants to tap into the property valuation of Horseshoe Casino to help pay off its debt for streets and sewers surrounding the Mid-America Center. Advertisement According to City Finance Director Scott Sanders, there is a need to add more tax revenue from areas such as the Horseshoe property to ensure sufficient revenue will be generated to make annual debt payments and repay interfund city loans that have been used to make payments. Lack of private development on property surrounding the MAC in the first few years after the facility was built resulted in lower property tax revenues than city officials originally anticipated. The original bonds were issued with a principal amount of $8.7 million. As of last month, $6.6 million in principal remained unpaid and the city had utilized nearly $3.5 million in interfund loans from other city funds. So far, the area has only generated $700,000 in property tax revenues through tax increment financing to pay off the debt. "We plan to capture $30 million of their (Horseshoe) valuation, which generates roughly $1.1 million in property taxes paid to the tax increment fund a year to help pay off the debt," he said. "There is about $9.8 million in principal and interest that needs to be paid off yet. It could go on for five years, give or take a year." Community Development Director Don Gross said what occurred in the construction of the arena is the city issued about $8.7 million in bonds to put in streets and storm sewers. "It was anticipated the arena would create private development to pay off the debt," Gross said. "There hasn't been enough (property tax creating development) to retire the debt. We will get there eventually, but it won't be the same time scale." The city's first preference would have had private development pay it all, but it has not happened fast enough, Sanders added. The money generated from the Horseshoe proposal will go into a Tax Increment Financing account and not to other taxing entities, including schools, he said. Schools get their money from various sources besides property taxes, including state aid that can make up any reduction in property taxes. The City Council plans to hold a public hearing on the matter at its Nov. 13 meeting.