FireKeepers Casino Benefits Local Residents

Every year, FireKeepers Casino Hotel gives a substantial amount of its slot machine revenue to local governments and schools. Harpers Creek Community Schools is among the beneficiaries that will receive a substantial amount of the revenue that they collected.

The home district for Harper Community Schools is set to get slightly more than $2.1 million, which is part of the $5.3 million that the Casino paid to the FireKeepers Local Revenue Sharing Board. The payment is made so that local area entities are reimbursed some money for making up for loss in tax revenue. This is because some of the entities in the area are tax exempts such as the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi’s casino and Pine Creek Reservation.

The number of entities that are set to benefit from the money are 21 in total. The amounts that each entity will receive has already been approved by the FireKeepers Local Revenue Sharing Board. The approval was done at a meeting that was held on the 29th April.

The second largest amount will go to Emmett Township. The amount that Emmett Township will receive in exact figures is $653,496. This amount also includes the reimbursement that it was granted last month. The FireKeepers Local Revenue Sharing Board also approved that Calhoun County should be paid $565,244, that include payments to the roads department as well as senior and veteran’s services. The medical care facility that is located at 1150 E. Michigan will also benefit and will receive $20,527. $513,234 will be paid to the Calhoun Intermediate School District.

There is an agreement between the tribe and the FireKeepers Casino Hotel that requires them to give back 2 percent of the revenues that they collect from the slot machine. After the money is collected, a six-person board is then given the mandate of distributing the funds. The six-person board is made up of government representatives who distribute the money through a tier system. Some of the money is allocated for administrative costs and some set for reimbursements.

After this is done, the government takes 80 percent of what is left, which goes to the losing tax revenue. The next group that benefits are municipalities that are close to the casino. The board can use what remains for a grant application program. The FireKeepers Local Revenue Sharing Board has decided to reopen the grant program after closing it last year and will set aside $200,000 for its applicants.

Compared to the previous year (2015), the amount that FireKeepers Casino Hotel is paying out has increased by about 5.2 percent.

The FireKeepers Local Revenue Sharing Board has the responsibility of managing specified payments made by the FireKeepers Casino Hotel to local governments and schools. They are also charged with the responsibility of reimbursement request and payment of lieu of taxes. The board members include Jack Reed, Tim Hill, Rebecca Fleury, Jamie Stuck, Greg Moore and Derek King.