The Forest County Potawatomi didn't pay the $43.6 million the tribe owed the state for the right to offer gambling by Thursday, leaving officials more than $100 million short of what they expected to generate through gambling compacts in the 2003-05 budget. The governor's office said the state still ended the budget in the black, however.
The Ho-Chunk Nation already had decided to withhold $60 million it owed the state over the past two years. The two tribes' decisions illustrate the impact of last year's state Supreme Court decision that struck down sections of the Potawatomi's compact allowing Las Vegas-style games.
Gov. Jim Doyle reached similar deals with the Ho-Chunk and the state's other tribes that offer gambling. The state and tribes have been trying to broker new compacts in the wake of the ruling.
Compacts are deals the state makes with 11 American Indian tribes in Wisconsin that allow them to offer gambling in exchange for million-dollar payments.
The latest round of payments were due Thursday, the last day of the state's fiscal year and the 2003-05 budget. Nine tribes have agreed to make their payments, said Sean Dilweg, executive assistant for the state Department of Administration.
The Potawatomi paid the state $40.5 million last year as a gesture of good faith. But Potawatomi Attorney General Jeff Crawford said the tribe won't make its payment this year until it gets a new compact.
"The Potawatomi will pay. It is only a question of time," Crawford said in a written statement. "The Potawatomi are committed to Wisconsin and its taxpayers."
The Ho-Chunk and the Potawatomi left the state about $103.6 million short in gambling revenue for the 2003-05 state budget. Doyle's office insisted the state would still finish the fiscal year with a $6 million balance.
"If we'd had that (the Potawatomi and Ho-Chunk payments) we would have had a higher ending balance," administration spokesman Scott Larrivee said. "We'll get the money. We'll get it in the next fiscal year."
The Ho-Chunk Nation signed a similar deal with the state for expanded games. After the Supreme Court ruling, the tribe pulled its new games and withheld the money it owed the state. Negotiations with the Ho-Chunk over a new compact have gone to arbitration.
The whole battle stems to 2003, when Doyle, a Democrat, reached a deal with the Potawatomi that had no expiration date and let the tribe offer new Las Vegas-style games such as roulette and craps in exchange for larger payments to the state.
The governor struck similar deals with the other tribes, throwing Republican lawmakers into an outrage. They filed suit, alleging Doyle overstepped his authority. The state Supreme Court agreed.
Potawatomi and state officials have tried unsuccessfully to hammer out a new compact. Crawford said the talks were hampered by the Supreme Court ruling, a pending lawsuit challenging American Indian gambling in Wisconsin and the Menominee Nation's plans for an off-reservation casino in Kenosha.