Rockford is in line for a windfall in gaming tax revenue thanks to the 180,000-square-foot Hard Rock Casino resort opening Thursday.
Winnebago County, Loves Park and Machesney Park are all about to get significant gaming revenue bumps, too.
Rockford received $2.8 million in gaming tax revenue in 2023 from the temporary casino on Bell School Road, according to information from the Illinois Gaming Board. Under its agreement with Hard Rock, it is guaranteed $7 million annually or an additional $4.2 million more a year from gaming revenue at the full-scale operation, 7801 E. State St.
City Council has not yet decided how to spend that additional money, which the state pays out monthly.
More: Rockford’s temporary casino closes second full year with record revenue
Ald. Mark Bonne, D-14, said he would like to see the city expand its commitment to Rockford Promise, beef up its residential road program, invest in making the city more bicycle and pedestrian friendly and devote a portion toward public safety pensions.
Rockford spends $1.5 million a year of its casino revenue on Rockford Promise scholarships for Rockford Public School students with at least a 3.0 GPA to attend Northern Illinois University. That program could be expanded to potentially include Rock Valley College and Rockford University, Bonne said.
Some officials have also said they would like to expand it to include students from Rockford’s private high schools.
"I could see an expansion of Rockford Promise in two ways — only one of which I would support," Bonne said. "I would support expanding it with scholarships to Rock Valley and Rockford University even though Rockford University is a private institution. I don’t love the idea of expanding it to private schools, but I could see us discussing that for sure."
Under the law that expanded casino gaming in Illinois, Rockford gets 70% of the local share of gaming taxes, Winnebago County gets 20%, Loves Park takes 5% and Machesney Park gets 5%.
The permanent casino is far larger than the temporary.
More: Hard Rock Casino Rockford workforce works to unionize ‘wall to wall’
It will boast nearly 1,300 slot machines, a sportsbook and 50 table games including classic games like blackjack, craps and roulette in addition to baccarat and live poker.
Although the temporary was considered a huge success, it had no sportsbook, half as many slot machines and a fraction of the live table games. In its second and final full year of operation in 2023, the temporary Rockford Casino collected more than $69 million in revenue after gamblers were paid winnings. That was a 26% increase over the $54.8 million it collected in revenue in 2022.
Ald. Frank Beach, R-10, said City Council should weigh in together on how the additional funding should be spent. He said expansion of Rockford Promise to benefit parochial school students should be on the table. So would be potentially important infrastructure projects like renovating fire stations, reconstructing and adding sidewalks citywide and tackling a capital improvement project the city couldn’t previously afford.
Beach said he expects the city in addition to gaming taxes to benefit from increases in sales and property taxes from the casino.
"Now we have a new source of revenue that is supposed to be coming into us that we have never had before," Beach said. "Let’s look at some of the projects that we can’t get done and start to fund them. Whether that’s increased sidewalks, other capital projects, or lead service line replacement."
Ald. Chad Tuneberg, R-3, said the bulk of the money should be directed into resurfacing deteriorating residential roads and repairing alleys as the cost of construction continues to increase.
Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara said City Council will consider how to spend its share of additional casino revenue in the next few weeks. He said that the money could have a "transformational impact" on the city.
Under its host community agreement with Hard Rock, if Rockford’s share of tax revenue does not reach a minimum of $7 million, the casino will pay the difference.
Other taxing bodies have no such minimum guarantee but are still expected to see significant increases in gaming revenue.
Loves Park plans to put all of its share of casino gaming revenue into its general fund used to pay police officers, firefighters and public works employees, Loves Park Mayor Greg Jury said.
Last fiscal year, Loves Park received about $210,000 in casino gaming revenue. Jury estimates the city could get more than $400,000 a year from the permanent casino.
"Because we don’t have a property tax, revenue from gaming or sales tax, those kind of things, are very beneficial to us," Jury said. "We might add a police officer here or there or someone in public works or fire, but we will put it in our general fund and use it to pay for all the good things that get done here at the city."
Machesney Park Mayor Steve Johnson said his village will continue to dedicate its share of gaming revenue from the casino toward its general fund to pay for essential services, public safety and community development.
Winnebago County Board Chairman Joe Chiarelli said it’s impossible to judge how much more money the county can expect annually in gaming tax revenue. He said that the county collected $777,000 last fiscal year from the temporary casino, all of which was invested in its county highway and infrastructure program.
Even if that amount were to double with the opening of the far larger permanent casino, Chiarelli said the plan is to keep the money invested in capital improvement.
It could depend on how much money is generated by the tax.
"With the expanded footprint, increased amount of machines and tables, I don’t know if you can put a formula to that or not," Chiarelli said. "There’s always excitement surrounding new places. So I I don’t think we can really forecast logically until we have a whole year under our belt."
Jeff Kolkey writes about government, economic development and other issues for the Rockford Register Star. He can be reached at (815) 987-1374, via email at jkolkey@rrstar.com and on X @jeffkolkey.
