Municipalities offered money to support casino

Friday, April 14, 2000 | 9:45 a.m.

The deal with the 17 communities will not benefit the casino proponents if Hudson maintains its opposition, City Attorney Brian Radosevich told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The Lac Courte Oreilles, Sokaogon and Red Cliff bands of Chippewa have asked the city's approval for building a casino at a Hudson parimutuel race track owned by the family of Fred Havenick of Florida.

Under an eight-year agreement, 10 towns in St. Croix County would receive payments equal to what they collected in property taxes in 1998, said Mark Goff, a spokesman for the casino group. Seven villages would get payments equal to about 50 percent of their revenue.

Payments would increase 5 percent annually for eight years.

"Maybe 17 or 18 municipalities around here want the casino," Radosevich said, "but where will the casino be situated? That's Hudson."

Goff said the casino group is also willing to compensate Hudson. It and the city are mediating a $175 million lawsuit the group filed in 1995, accusing the city of breaking a promise to support the casino in exchange for $1.15 million a year.

Payments offered to the other municipalities range from about $7,500 for the village of Deer Park to $490,000 for the village of Baldwin.

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