Kasich’s Casino deal costs Ohio schools $215 million

Our sister site Ohio Budget Watch has the real story behind the casino deal Kasich announced today, the story Kasich doesn’t want you to know.

While Kasich is running around claiming he got $110 million more from casinos in fees, the deal he struck involving VLTs and casino taxes actually loses the state hundreds of millions of dollars:

we lose about $100 million per year in CAT revenue (based on estimates of CAT at “$tens of millions” per casino, per year

we lose about $215 million per year in license revenue from video lottery terminals by lowering tax rate from 50% to 33%

we lose about $280 million per year in up-front fees from the 7 racetracks by lowering them from $65

That’s over $600 Million we’re losing thanks to Kasich – $215 million of which is earmarked for education.

It’s hard to believe THIS is the deal that Kasich paid his casino consultants tens of millions of dollars to come up with.