Lee Newspapers

The Ho-Chunk tribe missed an initial budget deadline Monday to pay an estimated $72 million in gambling money that state officials are counting on to help balance an already stressed state budget.

It's now been more than two years since the tribe, locked in a legal battle with the state over its gambling compact, has made any of the disputed payments on its casino operations.

The lingering dispute raises the question of whether the state will receive nearly $100 million in estimated payments expected by June 2009 in time to prevent a gaping hole in a budget that could force lawmakers to raise taxes, cut services or borrow money to make up the difference.

The missed deadline — Monday was the end of the first fiscal year of the current two-year budget — comes a little over a month after state officials approved a $527 million budget fix to cover a shortfall caused by the souring economy.

"We're just anticipating that it will be paid by them," said Linda Barth, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Administration. "We will try as outlined in the (gambling) compact to collect the money."

The dispute revolves around money that the state is seeking under a gambling compact Gov. Jim Doyle signed with the tribe in 2003 giving the Ho-Chunk perpetual gambling rights and additional games in exchange for much larger payments to the state. A state Supreme Court decision invalidated a similar compact with another tribe in 2004.

Ho-Chunk officials have said that, because of the court decision, the tribe doesn't owe the amount the state is seeking but is willing to negotiate a new gambling compact.

David Greendeer, Ho-Chunk executive administration officer, told the tribal newspaper Hocak Worak the nation does have the funds to pay any money due the state. He said the dispute is about the Nation fighting for its sovereignty. Greendeer said it's important that the tribe protect and take care of its own people by working out the best deal possible.

When they put together the state's 2007-2009 budget last fall, Doyle and lawmakers figured they would receive $72 million from the Ho-Chunk tribe by Monday and the nearly $100 million by the end of the budget in June 2009.

The disputed payments are estimates of what state officials expect the tribe to owe based on a percentage of its casino business. The Ho-Chunk tribe's gambling operations include Majestic Pines Casino in Black River Falls.

The state is also still in negotiations with the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa over payments officials believe the state is owed, Barth said.

(John Kozlowicz of the Hocak Worak contributed to this story.)