Casino Columbus
After a long, long back and forth, the City of Columbus and Penn National Gaming have finally come to a resolution to their longstanding casino development differences. After amending the constitutional amendment to move the casino location, the city had some issue with Penn’s water and sewage operations, given its new locale.
Well, that may all be behind us now. And thank god.
According to The Dispatch, “The Columbus City Council approved a settlement with Penn National Gaming last night and set aside $15 million to help develop its casino.
The council also agreed to pay $350,000 in legal fees that the city incurred defending itself against Penn National’s lawsuit, which sought access to sewer and water service without annexation of the casino site into Columbus.”
The $15M will defray the costs of environmental cleanup and roadwork at the site, and under the agreement, the site can tap into Columbus’ sewage and water lines, for the low low price of an expected $24M per year in casino revenue taxes, which will prioritize the repayment of the original $15M. And those figures don’t even bring casino income tax into the equation.
To the resistant city officials: that is not a bad ROI.