Brief: Tribes to halt tax payments

Under compacts signed in 1993 with the seven tribes, the state gets 8 percent of each tribes' slot machine revenue each year -- enough to add up to $155.5 million since March 1994.

The tribes can stop paying the fees as soon as any Detroit casino gets a temporary license. That could be as early as May.

State officials aren't talking much yet about how they'll replace the Indian gaming fee revenue.

Three casino resorts are planned in Detroit and state fees they pay will go mostly toward education and casino regulation -- the Indian fees had gone to a special fund that was often tapped by Gov. John Engler for economic development projects.

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