Casino money unlikely to aid district's budget

STATE —  It's unclear where the money the Department of Education receives from Oxford Casino will be applied in the next state budget, but the possibility SAD 17 will get direct support is unlikely.

Forty-six percent of the net revenue from Oxford Casino's slots and 16 percent from its table games is collected by Maine's Gambling Control Board and distributed to other state agencies, groups and the town of Oxford.

DOE receives the lion's share of casino disbursement – 25 percent from slots and 10 percent from table games.

According to state law the money is used to "supplement and not to supplant funding for essential programs and services for kindergarten to grade 12."

Around $11 million has been collected by the department since the Oxford Casino opened in June, according to DOE Spokesperson David Connerty-Marin.

Because the Oxford Casino had not yet opened when this year's budget was being designed, no revenue had been applied, Connerty-Marin said.

None of that money has been spent so far and where exactly it will be applied in the 2013-2014 budget is still being considered.

"It is currently set to go to [General Purpose Aid], but how it's spent within GPA is up for discussion," Connerty-Marin said.

The decision on how to spend the money would ultimately come from the Governor and Legislature, Connerty-Marin said.

Services provided with GPA aren't necessarily delivered directly to the school districts, Connerty-Marin explains.  A large portion of GPA is used to fund statewide testing on behalf of the districts, for example.

"We could send every district a bill for the statewide assessments and then send them all money or we could simply take care of assessments here."

Connerty-Marin imagined those writing the budget would predict casino revenue for the coming year while putting the 2013-2014 budget together.

"As part of all of the financial and budget discussions, that's a piece of it," Connerty-Marin said.

"The Governor will have to decide how he wants to propose how it's used and the Legislature will have to decide if they agree with him."

SAD 17 Superintendent Rick Colpitts says the state intends to use the revenue to pay down its own budget, but it won't really help the local school budget.

The realization that Oxford Hills won't be receiving direct funding from the casino might be disappointing to some people in the community, Colpitts says – there was a perception that the casino revenue might be used to support local education. 

"I think one of the fears of the [casino] developers is it would be used to reduce GPA for the state rather than increase GPA for districts," Colpitts says.

"I think those fears are all coming to be true, that the state will save some money based on the revenue from the casino and locally we'll receive nothing different. It's disappointing in that regard."