Gaming revenue taxes paid to Warren County are down compared to last year, but officials still foresee tapping the fund reserves to finance a new handicap ramp at the county courthouse.

Through January, the county had collected $741,140 in revenue taxes from Vicksburg’s four casinos for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1. The total was off nearly 6 percent from the same time in 2014. At that rate, collections for fiscal 2015 would be $2.2 million, or about $300,000 off from projections in this year’s budget. About $1 million in reserves has been carried over to the fund the past two years.

A public hearing Feb. 23 is set to gather comments on upgrading handicap access at the courthouse. Supervisors have said they’d apply for a $600,000 federal block grant to pay for it. The grant would have to be matched with local tax money, likely from the gaming fund. Historically, the county has funded routine road maintenance with gaming dollars with the occasional dip-in for projects such as the handicap access, an arrangement supervisors said Monday didn’t figure to change despite public perceptions about how the county uses money derived from gaming.

“As soon as The Vicksburg Post puts the numbers in, people will just look at the numbers,” District 3 Supervisor Charles Selmon said. “The first question they will ask is where is all that money going. It’s usually what people say next.”

Casinos in Vicksburg pay a 3.2 percent tax on gross revenue to local government and public schools. Warren County receives 25 percent of that total, plus eight-tenths of an 8.8 percent tax levied by the state. The latter is determined by population splits in the city and county.

Collections in January hit $204,459 for the month, highest of any month so far this fiscal year and off just half a percent from the same month in 2014. New lane stripes are planned along parts of four county roads not already subsidized with aid from the state, though the list hasn’t been prioritized. It includes Gibson Road, Paxton Road, Stenson Loop and Stenson Road.

Casinos statewide won $988 million from gamblers in 2014, the first time it’s dipped below $1 billion since 1994. Revenues have fallen six of seven years since a $2.89 billion peak in 2007.

Historically, February has been a boon for casino revenue and local government coffers. It’s usually when the first round of federal income tax refunds hit taxpayers’ bank accounts nationwide.

“February should pick up,” District 2 Supervisor William Banks said. “It was a late start in January with people getting their returns.”

Upgrading wheelchair access represents a compromise of sorts between supervisors and officials with the state Supreme Court. In January, a top security official and chief Justice William Waller suggested strongly to supervisors they place at least one metal detector on each of the building’s three main floors. So far, such a system has been put on the back burner over cost and a concern it would inconvenience the public.

Pending public comment, supervisors expect to designate The Ferguson Group to write the grant application. Talks since late last year with the Madison-based firm haven’t yet resulted in naming the company as the county’s grant writer of record.

“We spend our (gaming) money on one-time things, road paving and equipment for law enforcement,” county administrator John Smith said. “We don’t spend it on operating costs.”