Lincoln Liquor Commission holds fast on proposed registration fees for Video Gaming Terminals

 

[February 18, 2022] 

Though it was not on the agenda for discussion at the Tuesday, February 15th, Committee of the Whole meeting of the Lincoln City Council, the topic of registration fees for video gaming terminals was discussed. In the end, a decision was made about a motion to be placed on the next voting agenda. The next regular meeting of the Lincoln City Council will be on Tuesday, February 22nd, due to the Presidents Day holiday on Monday.

On the COW agenda’s there is an item at the bottom of the agenda for “announcements.” During this period, Mayor Tracy Welch told the council that the city’s liquor commission, which consists of Welch and Aldermen Rick Hoefle and Tony Zurkammer, had met and discussed the concerns of the local bar owners who attended the February 7th meeting of the council.

In the end, the commission decided to recommend holding fast on the increase of registration fees from $25 per terminal per year to $250 per terminal per year.

The commission also recognized the need to change the draft ordinance to reflect that terminal owners and terminal operators should share the cost of the terminal fee equally. Therefore, local businesses and organizations will be expected to pay $125 per terminal per year, and the supplier of the terminals shall pay the other half.

With keeping the increase, there was also a caveat presented to the council. The city shall designate the annual registration fees collected to use on city alleyways. In addition, one-half of all the tax revenue collected on the terminals shall be designated to the Streets and Alleys Department of the city.

The tax referred to is the tax assessed by the state of Illinois. The state collects the tax and then distributes back to the municipality its five percent.

In 2021, the tax payable to the city of Lincoln was just over $450,000. Under the stipulation by the council, about $225,000 would go directly to street repairs in the city.

Hoefle said that he felt this was a good plan. He noted that the alleys in the town don’t get a lot of attention and some are atrocious. He said if the city uses the approximately $60,000 in licensing fees for alleys, it would give Street and Alley Department Head Walt Landers something to work with. In the same manner, adding $200,000 or more to the street repair budget would take Lincoln a long way in improving the nearly 170 miles of streets within the city.

Hoefle noted that the constituents of the town in general are always asking for better roads. He said if all 240 licenses currently issued would get their machines installed, the annual tax could exceed $600,000 and that would mean $300,000 for the street department in addition to their regular budget and the Motor Fuel Tax budget.

Alderman Steve Parrott confirmed that was the plan, to add to the street budget not replace general funds with gaming tax. Welch said that was correct. The city wants to build the fund balance available to the streets department.

Welch said he didn’t like adding to the financial burden on anyone, but he also felt good that the city was designating this money to taking care of roads, which is vitally important to the city and the constituents.

Parrott also reminded the council that at the last meeting there had been discussion about putting a cap on the number of terminal licenses issued at 200 city wide. Hoefle said that yes, the commission did discuss that and agreed it should be looked into. However, at the moment, there are 240 approved licenses, so the commission will need to wait until the total drops to below 200 to establish a cap. At the same time, Welch repeated what he had said last week, that he will not be signing off on any future applications.
 

Hoefle also talked about how the state is going to be permitting casinos. He said if the state increases its casino numbers, players could lose interest in local terminals and choose to go to casinos.

And, he also noted that while he personally doesn’t care for the gaming, people do, and if they don’t get it in Lincoln they will leave town to play.

City Treasurer Chuck Conzo asked the council to think about the not for profit organizations that have gaming such as the American Legion. He wondered if the city could give those entities a discount or break in the price. He was told that while, yes, those places were not for profits, their bars were still businesses, and the games were going to businesses.

Zurkammer also showed support for the commission decision, reminding the council that when the price breaks were given to licensees as a result of Covid-19, the city had shown no favoritism, everyone got the same break.

Welch recalled that the group of bar owners who attended the last meeting had wanted the games reserved just for bars, eliminating gas stations. He said the city couldn’t do that either. The state has determined who may have the terminals and the municipality has to go along with the state decision.

At the end of the short discussion, aldermen agreed to go ahead and put the motion to approve the increase of the licensing fee on the voting agenda for February 22nd.

As always, the city has the right to table any motion if they feel they are not prepared to make an informed decision.

[Nila Smith]