PEORIA — The city of Peoria estimates it could receive about $1.8 million annually as part of a settlement agreement with Boyd Gaming that will see Peoria drop its objections to plans for a new Par-A-Dice Casino.
City Manager Patrick Urich told the Journal Star on Sunday that the settlement agreement, which will be voted on by the Peoria City Council on Monday, was being worked on by attorneys as late as Friday afternoon. The special council meeting was announced on Saturday.
The agreement, if approved by the council, would see Peoria and East Peoria continue to split gaming tax revenues from the casino as they always have, but Peoria will now also receive an annual payment of 2.25% of all non-gaming tax revenues, such as property taxes, hotel taxes and sales taxes.
Urich said the casino estimates it will do about $80 million of business a year, putting Peoria’s payment from the settlement at about $1.8 million annually, in addition to the gaming tax revenue the city already receives.
Peoria and East Peoria currently have an agreement that splits gambling revenue generated by the casino between the two cities, with each receiving 45% of local gambling tax revenue.
The settlement reached Friday afternoon does not nullify a 1991 agreement signed between Peoria and East Peoria that dictated that any land-based casino constructed in the two cities would have to be on Peoria’s side of the Illinois. This agreement, Urich said, only pulls Peoria’s objection to this specific development.
Monday’s vote by the City Council could put a close to a years-long saga that has seen leaders from both Peoria and East Peoria exchange barbs over the future of the casino. Peoria has contended for months that Boyd Gaming and East Peoria need to abide by the 1991 agreement and build a land-based casino on the Peoria side of the river.
Boyd Gaming and East Peoria, meanwhile, had kept their cards close to their chest throughout the process. In December however, Boyd Gaming unveiled its plans to build a new $160 million casino to the Illinois Gaming Board, showing off a 29,000-square-foot building on land that it will use a loophole to call it a “riverboat.”
Boyd Gaming plans to construct its new building in the parking lot of the current riverboat and hotel. Boyd will then pump water underneath the floor of the building and call the building a water-based operation because its floor will rest on top of the water pumped from the river.
Peoria objected to this design but, if approved by the council, will pull its objection and receive a chunk of the tax dollars it would have otherwise lost out on.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: New details on how much money Peoria could gain from casino settlement
Reporting by JJ Bullock, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
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