By Josh Resnek
The city’s first host agreement installment from the casino of $6.8 million and smaller in lieu of taxes payment have been paid in full about 30 days late.
The payments were due and payable September 30.
City officials told the Leader Herald Encore issued the payment last week.
It was apparently deposited and into the city’s treasury.
With that deposit, the city is sitting with about $16 million in cash at the present moment.
However, the bulk of the cash is committed to ongoing projects and payments that must be made to reduce a variety of financial responsibilities.
One of those is increasing the amount contributed to the city’s lagging retirement fund.
The city has increased cash contributions to that fund in order to bring it to where it should be within a shorter time schedule.
The city will not be using any of the cash to lower the tax rate, according to city officials.
The late Encore quarterly payment, reported in another publication last week, shocked many city officials, chief among them the mayor, according to sources.
Especially disturbing, according to sources, is that the city of Boston received its $2 million payment Charlestown mitigation payment on time.
The annual Everett payments amount to approximately $25 million and an additional $5 million for odds and ends according to the host agreement.
There will also be an undetermined amount of revenue from room taxes paid by those renting suites at the Encore Hotel.