South Dakota Cities Earn From Casinos But Lose to State
Gambling and casinos are being exceedingly kind in financial ways to cities in Lawrence County, South Dakota; if only the state would follow suit. The South Dakota Commission on Gaming has returned the figures on revenue earned at Deadwood casinos, and once again a record has been set.
According to South Dakota law, once gamblings taxes surpass $6.8 million, the surplus goes not to Deadwood but other communities in the county. This year the revenue to be distributed to the cities of Central City, Lead, Whitewood, and Spearfish rose by 7% over last year's record, and is almost double what the towns were paid as recently as 2005.
However, a disturbing trend comes to light, illustrating a loophole citizens nationwide must guard against when watching over legislative action. The Spearfish School District would receive about $250,000 in casino payments, but then forfeits back to the state $239,000 in state education aid. Whitewood similarly gets paid but loses almost an equal amount back to South Dakota.
Basically, legislators have opted to keep education funding at the same low level, all the while trumpeting the amounts gambling has raised for school districts. Instead of compounding the original monies with the tax income from casinos, they have simply replaced one source with another, while furtively redirecting funds into shadowy pork projects.
This policy has been seen across the country, all the way back to the institution of the Florida Lottery twenty years ago. Although the lottery money was legally bound to education, nothing prevented scurrilous legislators from withdrawing the funding which already existed for education, and they promptly did so.
It seems an affront to the will of the people and the intent of gambling law for the states to give with one hand while taking with the other. May all the dubious uses of the redirected money be fully exposed, and until then let the lawmakers who committed these acts feel the shame that is due them.
