Long Odds
February 12th, 2009 at 4:19 pm by Jim Shella under Jim Shella's Political Blog
State lawmakers and city leaders are in talks with the Colts and the Pacers to find ways to pay for operating expenses at Conseco Fieldhouse and Lucas Oil Stadium and to cover an existing debt for those expenses now held by the Capital Improvement Board.
They are talks that have the Statehouse hallways buzzing over the possibility of an Indianapolis casino.
Sen. Luke Kenley says a downtown gambling parlor just won’t happen. Deals made to start casinos in Anderson, Shelbyville, and French Lick prohibit the move, according to Kenley. Democrats say that the denial of a casino when then-Mayor Bart Peterson suggested it is a problem for them.
No one yet has an answer that works.
Tags: Luke Kenley
Indiana’s Casinos are not the revenue generators they once were.
The politicians have completely tapped out gambling in Indiana when they legalized gambling in every restaurant, bar, and lodge and turned the Horse Tracks into Casinos instead of letting them fade away.
Indiana would be well advised to stick with the plan to have casinos located on our state borders across from large population centers like Chicago, Louisville, and Cincinnati to attract out of state tourism and new tax revenue than moving casinos to Indy or Fort Wayne which would just shift existing entertainment spending away from the Colts, Pacers, Indians, museums, etc..
Casino lobbyists are like cockroaches. You just cant get rid of them. The only angle they haven’t explored YET is adding prostitution and drug dealing to drum up more tax dollars.
It’s a really simple problem to solve. Player salaries are sucking too much money out of the revenue stream. The businessmen running these teams would have no problem at all slashing the payroll of their administrative staff, but the players are untouchable and that’s where the real problem lies. Player salaries are negotiated on the premise they are worth whatever they demand. Their agents threaten to move their player to some other city if their demands aren’t met. Gee, doesn’t THAT sound familiar? Unfortunately, taxpayers can’t play that card. It’s completely impractical for them to move to another city, so they get stuck with the tax bill to pay the extortionary demands.