Detroit loses $ 10 million on casino closings, $ 50 million on the line

If the Detroit casino stays closed until spring, the city will lose $ 50 million in tax revenue.

The city of Detroit is struggling with a casino tax shortage

Detroit A tough situation lies ahead as the city prepares for the millions lost in the COVID-19 crisis, which has strangled the healthcare system and forced the mandatory shutdown of less important businesses, including casinos.

During the meeting City Council in Tuesday, November 24 Chief Financial Officer of Detroit Dave Massaron, He said the city would only lose $ 10 million after a three-week casino suspension recently imposed on three city casinos.

However, if closures continue until spring, Detroit could lose $ 50 million in tax revenue, which are needed now more than ever, he noted. The city's casinos are already making a much smaller contribution to the economy, and results are steadily declining year on year in September.

The situation improved somewhat in October when properties saw an increase of 6.7% on a monthly basis but total $ 101.4 million generated over the month was still a 18.9% decline year over year. In the period from January down October 2020 . Casinos took note 550 million dollars , ie a decrease of 54.2% compared to the same period last year.

Time to redeploy and restart your industry

Arguing to resume operations, Massaron said the city would need to restart casinos to allow the tax dollar to flow again and introduce new labor-saving mechanisms.

Massaron stressed the importance of officials understanding that falling tax revenues are now doubly dangerous due to the tight economic environment triggered by COVID-19. The budget, Massaron argued, was once tight, but only got worse.

He's right because the state of Michigan is currently going through another closure, and governor Gretchen Whitmer manages new restrictions. New measures were necessary because of what Governor Whitmer described as "the worst moment of the pandemic."

The state has published 347,000 cases of Covid-19 and has registered 9,094 related deaths since the pandemic began in March, as of the time of the press release. Trying to balance the budget, the mayor of Detroit Mike Duggan introduced budget cuts aimed at saving $ 348 million in period from March 2020 down June 2021but that may not be enough.

Conferences, which deprived the city of more, also suffered from the lack of turnover in casinos $ 62 million in tax and deprived it 50,000 jobs.

The Detroit economy is stagnant

Speaking on Tuesday, councilor Janee Ayers she asked Massaron how bad things really were in the city and what she and other officials could do. One suggestion was to introduce a "work-sharing environment," outlined by Detroit's Assistant Chief Financial Officer, Tanya Stoudemire.

Stoudemire said the city is exploring all options, not just that manpower savings. Other members called from Stoudemire to give them the exact number needed to make savings to avoid unnecessary anxiety and panic.

Meanwhile, Detroit will seek to rely not only on its own budgeting capabilities, but also on the second federal the act stimulating, which can help the city survive the worst effects of the economic downturn.