Residents of cities and towns across South Dakota have recently expressed some qualms about the way in which the city of Deadwood’s take of profits from a nearby casino are being spent.
According to legislation passed in 1995, the city of Deadwood may receive a maximum of $6.8 in casino- derived funds, and the remainder is to be divided among state and local governments. Three years later, in 1998, the voters of Deadwood approved a constitutional amendment which said that all of the city’s casino proceeds that would be allocated to Deadwood had to be used for the historical preservation and restoration of the city. The city’s historical committee is expected to see almost $7 million in casino revenue in 2006- 2007.
However, many Deadwood residents say that the coffers of the state’s historical preservation society should see a greater amount of revenue from the casino. Instead of being used for historical preservation, they say, many of the profits from the casinos are used for regular city projects in Deadwood which should, they contend, be paid for by property taxes.
Bob Kolbe, which is the owner of a clock store and a member of the State Historical Society Board, said that it is unfair that Deadwood uses casino revenues for services that other cities have to pay for with property taxes, such as police and fire department services. That money, he said, was intended to be allocated to historical preservation projects around the state.
Mark Meierhenry, a Sioux Falls lawyer and member of the South Dakota Historical Society board for the past six years, said that he has looked into the issue and agreed with Kolbe.
“I felt that they weren’t spending enough money on what I call true history,” he said. Deadwood was “spending (casino- derived) money on what I thought should be city costs.”
“It was the intention, I think, of the state voters … that part of those funds would go for history. I don’t think the rest of the state is getting their share,” he said.
Meierhenry expressed the hope that the State Legislature would reconsider the issue, since there’s a lot of history to spend their money on” in South Dakota.
Deadwood mayor Francis Toscana defended the city’s use of funds, saying that casino revenues are used to defray the cost of providing police and fire department services for the 1 or 2 million visitors who visit the town’s neighboring casino every year.
“Those are what we call impact funds, and we have presented that to the state historic commission yearly. It’s been approved every year,” he said.
“We’re not a town of 1,300 people - we have to have a larger Police Department,” Toscana said.
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