By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
CASSOPOLIS – Citing a May 7 Detroit News report that Michigan lost approximately $300 million in revenue sharing from state tribal compacts since 1999, the Cass County Board of Commissioners called Thursday for stronger enforcement of the agreements.
Commissioners urged Gov. Jennifer Granholm and the Legislature "to provide for more stringent enforcement of the state's tribal compact agreements for the benefit of state and local community budgets."
Resolution 167 of 2006 also calls for copies of the action to be forwarded to the governor, state Sen. Ron Jelinek, R-Three Oaks, state Reps. Rick Shaffer, R-Three Rivers, and Neal Nitz, R-Baroda, and the Michigan Association of Counties (MAC).
Jelinek's aide, Chris Siebenmark, who has been elected to the Three Oaks Village Council in Berrien County, routinely attends county board meetings and can convey the vote personally.
According to the resolution offered by Commissioner Gordon Bickel, R-Porter Township, during the same time period statutory revenue sharing to the local level was slashed by more than $2 billion, PILT (payments in lieu of taxes) were frozen, the remonumentation fund was "raided" and local public health programs have been cut.
Yet "many of the tribal compact agreements provide for 2 percent of slot machine revenue to be shared locally. However, some tribes dedicated their 2-percent payments to charities of their own choosing," the resolution states, "circumventing the obligation to share with local units of government."
"At a time when state budget cuts have reached historic proportions," the Board of Commissioners resolved, "no source of revenue should be simply 'left off the table.' "
Further, lawmakers' recent elimination of the state's Single Business Tax "adds great uncertainty to the state's budget."
Nov. 7 voters defeated Proposal 5, which could have compounded the anxiety with K-16 spending mandates.
Michigan's counties are scheduled to gradually come back into the revenue sharing formula beginning with the 2007 budget cycle, fulfilling a 2004 agreement between MAC and Granholm.