CASINOS SAY LOCAL TAX BILLS TOO HIGH, PAY UNDER PROTEST

Here is more evidence that gambling in Missouri is rapidly turning into a monster voters wouldn't have wanted to create when they decided to allow riverboat casinos. Several of the casinos are protesting local property taxes. Some have paid their taxes under protest. Others are mounting huge appeals of their city and county tax bills.

Wait a minute. Wasn't one plus of the casinos supposed to be how they would contribute mightily to the treasuries of state and local government? Wasn't gambling presented as a "painless" form of taxation that would generate millions and millions of dollars that wouldn't show up in property taxes, sales taxes and income taxes?

But in Kansas City and St. Louis, casinos now claim their assessments on both personal and real property values set by local assessors. The upshot is that some casinos are holding tax payments in escrow, while others are paying under protest. Either way, local governments who stand to benefit from those taxes are having to adjust their budget, because they can't spend the revenue until this issue is cleared up.

"It definitely affects your cash flow," said Al Tunis, an assistant superintendent for the Park Hill School District in Platte County, which is in the northern end of the Kansas City metropolitan area. That district stands to lose more than $362,000 in casino taxes. The nearby North Kansas City School District in Clay County could lose nearly half a million dollars -- just for one tax year.

It is true that casinos are like any business and have a right to protest what are considered to be unfair taxes. But the arguments being offered by the gambling enterprises are based more on over-saturation of the riverboat market and the on the fact that gambling profit in Missouri hasn't met optimistic expectations.

It can be hoped that this issue will be quickly resolved so that the taxing entities left in limbo can put their financial affairs in order.