Casino tax revenue benefits county

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The Fayette County Commissioners recently adopted a resolution allocating 100 percent of funds received from the Ohio Casino Tax revenue to be used for general improvement.

According to ballotpedia.org, the Ohio Casino Approval and Tax Distribution Amendment, also known as Amendment 3, was on the Nov. 3, 2009 ballot in Ohio as an initiated constitutional amendment, where it was approved. The measure authorized the construction of casinos in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, and Toledo. The measure also distributed the taxes from the casinos to all counties in the state.

The amendment places a fixed tax of 33 percent on the gross casino revenue of each casino. Additionally, tax percentages were placed with 51 percent being distributed among all 88 counties in proportion to such counties’ respective populations. The other tax rates that were set included 34 percent for public school districts, 5 percent among the host cities, 3 percent was allocated for the Ohio casino control commission, as well as 3 percent going to the Ohio state racing commission fund, 2 percent went to a state law enforcement training fund and the final 2 percent to help the state’s problem gambling and addictions fund.

“Fayette County has been receiving the last couple of years a little over $300,00 a year and we have been putting that money towards capital projects,” commissioner Dan Dean said. “That is why (the community) has been seeing repairs at the court house and generators behind the building we operate in. We have also made repairs to roofs on some of our buildings. The money has been designated for things like that and in the long run, we will see the county save money as far as energy efficiency and much needed repairs.”

The commissioners said that the county was expecting, when they made the yearly budget, to receive about $275,000 from this revenue. According to Dean, they received notice that the first of the checks is to be sent by the end of the month and will be for $85,000. If this continues for the year, the actual amount will be over $300,000.

“This year we are hoping to put a new back-up generator system in at the courthouse,” Dean said. “We are looking to put up a new roof on our economic development building. It seems to be in pretty bad repair. A few more projects will be coming soon.”

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Fayette has been receiving over $300,000 a year

By Martin Graham

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Reach Martin Graham at (740) 313-0351 or on Twitter @MartiTheNewsGuy

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