Lake Station taps casino money to help pay bills

LAKE STATION — The City Council approved a request from Mayor Keith Soderquist last week to pour $420,000 of casino revenue into the flagging general fund, but at least one councilman cried foul.

Councilman Don Huddleston, 2nd District, said the mayor sprang the decision on the council without advanced discussion. He also said the city should have been using the money to fix roads and sewage problems all along.

“I have roads in my district that need to be paved,” Huddleston said. “How did our budget get so bad in the red? We’ve got sewage running out into people’s yards every time it rains. That money should never have been accumulated in the first place.”

The city gets about $125,000 a year in casino tax revenues, about a third of what it used to get, and keeps it in a fund for road and infrastructure improvements, Soderquist said. The city spent only some of the fund over the past five years, accumulating the money the council moved into the general fund, which is often in the red here.

Like all taxing districts, Lake Station has had to adjust to far less revenue due to permanent property tax caps added as an amendment to the state constitution in 2010.

At $4.2 million, the general fund, including $2.3 million for public safety, had to be shored up, and cutting money from the police and fire departments to save money was not an option, Soderquist said.

“When you tally all of the funds, you have the total amount in (the city’s) checkbook,” he said. “If the money’s not there, overall, to spend, we don’t spend it. We definitely have paved the streets and worked on the infrastructure, but not all of it. (The casino fund has) accumulated extra funds.”

The mayor also said the city will spend about $230,000 on street improvements this year.

Soderquist’s request passed 5-2. The majority of council members generally side with the mayor’s requests, while two members, Huddleston and Harry Pedroza Jr. , 4th District, are often in the minority on key votes.