Judge Jennifer Schloegel recently heard arguments in Hancock County Chancery Court in Mississippi regarding whether .18 million of casino rent money should have been put into the state’s general fund or paid to the city of Biloxi.
Attorneys for the city argued the state’s “sweep” of the money defies a court settlement mandating it should go to the city, which wants to recoup the funds and establish a future agreement giving authority over the money to Biloxi and removing the Secretary of State as trustee.
The state argued House Bill 878, passed during the last session, “directs the state fiscal officer to transfer sums from certain funds in the state treasury to the capital expense fund” and supersedes previous court settlements. Wilson Minor, an attorney for Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, said the legislation allowed the state to take more than $1 million earmarked for the city out of the account the money is placed in, which is the Tidelands Trust Fund. Minor added the legislature’s decision “trumps the city of Biloxi and the Institutions of Higher Learning.”
Michael Whitehead, an attorney for the city of Biloxi, said the state’s taking of the money defied a 2002 agreement, under which the Isle of Capri (since sold to Golden Nugget) agreed to pay the city of Biloxi $2.48 million in annual rent. The remaining amount had been split three ways between Biloxi, the IHL and the Secretary of State since the 2002 agreement, until the legislature passed House Bill 878 last June.
Whitehead proposed that Biloxi be given first authority to oversee the money going forward. Britt Singletary, attorney for Golden Nugget Casino Biloxi and its parent company, Landry’s, concurred. “I believe it’s in the best interest of the city to account for it. The taxes pay for city services we all use, police, fire, roads,” he said.
No date has been set for the next court hearing.
