By: Mary Ellen Klas
Source: Miami Herald
As legislative budget negotiations reached a stalemate Wednesday, Gov. Charlie Crist and the Seminole Tribe offered the state a financial lifeline: $1.1 billion in cash over two years in return for giving the tribe a gambling monopoly.
The Seminoles would send the state an unprecedented check for $600 million in 2009-10 and another for $500 million, if needed, in 2010-11. During the 25-year agreement, the total minimum payment to the state would be $2.5 billion, minus interest payments for the upfront money in the first two years.
The trade off for Florida: no payment at all in year three, then payments that would slowly ramp up again in years four through 25.
