How did your tax dollars find their way to a wealthy Indian tribe that runs one of the most successful casinos in the United States? Ask Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT). Apparently he decided that the tribe really needed your money because that $1.3 billion per year isn’t enough.

With the support of Sen. Chris Dodd, D.-Conn., the federal government has awarded $54 million to Connecticut’s politically well-connected Mohegan Indian tribe, which operates one of the highest grossing casinos in the U.S.

The tribe runs the sprawling Mohegan Sun casino, halfway between New York City andBoston, which earned more than $1.3 billion in gross revenues in 2009. Each tribe member receives a cut of the profits, a number a tribal official said was “less than $30,000? per capita per year. The stimulus money is a loan from a U.S. Department of Agriculture rural development program that is meant to help communities of less than 20,000 people that have been “unable to obtain other credit at reasonable rates and terms and are unable to finance the proposed project from their own resources.”

Each member of the tribe receives $30,000 per year just for being a member of the tribe. Gross revenue for 2009 was $1.3 billion. But the tribe needs $54 million in federal tax dollars for rural development? Color me skeptical.

In fact, the tribe in question received more than its fair share of the rural development appropriation.

The $54 million loan represents more than one-third of the $167.8 million allocated by the USDA in the latest wave of stimulus funding for its rural development program.The loan is just part of $74 million in loans directed to the Mohegans by the USDA for the construction of a community center and tribal government building.

USDA officials said that part of their consideration in moving forward with the project was the tribe’s continued challenge in obtaining credit because of the ongoing economic crisis.

Aw, my sincerest sympathies for the tribe that owns a successful casino with gross revenues of $1.3 billion, with $53.6 million in profit, last year alone. Times must be difficult for the tribe that pays out $30,000 to each member just for being a member. What more can we do for this charity case?

Ed Morrissey:

The Indian tribe making over $1.3 billion in receipts from its casino wound up with a third of the entire outlay from the USDA’s rural development program? And how exactly does an entity earning $1.3 billion from a casino, with $53.6 million in profit have trouble getting credit? They clearly have assets in their community for collateral.

The “cut of the profits” argument is misleading as well. The tribe members get a little less than $30K per year in profit sharing. Many of them presumably work at the casino itself and earn salaries for their work apart from the profit sharing. The casino arguably should generate a secondary support economy in their community as well.

This is how Congress spends our tax dollars to “stimulate” the economy. By sending tens of millions of dollars to wealthy Indian tribes in exchange for political support. It’s sickening.