No move afoot to raid casino funds this year

FRom the LOuisville Courier-Journal

INDIANAPOLIS — Just a year after lawmakers nearly took millions of dollars in local tax revenue generated by casinos to balance the state's budget, the issue seems to have all but died.

Fiscal leaders are no longer talking about raiding casino counties' coffers — either to bolster the state's bottom line or to help other local governments struggling to pay bills.

Senate President Pro Tem Robert Garton, R-Columbus, said recently that he has not heard a word about the issue this year. And Rep. Jeff Espich, R-Uniondale, said earlier that he doesn't expect lawmakers to even discuss it.

"I haven't heard anything," said Sen. Johnny Nugent, R-Lawrenceburg, whose district includes two gambling boats. "And I don't even want to mention it around here."

That's good news for officials in Southern Indiana, where five riverboat casinos have helped bolster local budgets. Even as they celebrated their victory last year, those officials worried that lawmakers would try again.

As a result, they've taken some steps to discourage criticism of the revenue they receive for playing host to a casino. Harrison County, for example, began a long-term planning process to try to bring more order to the way it spends its roughly $23million in annual revenue from the Caesars Indiana casino.

But Lawrenceburg, home of the Argosy Casino, undertook the biggest change. It initiated a $10million annual plan to start sharing its substantial casino revenue in the form of economic development grants to surrounding counties. Also, the city plans to give $500,000 annually to nearby Franklin County.

"We had to do it," said Rep. Bob Bischoff, D-Lawrenceburg. "What it does is bring in support from other legislators in southeast Indiana to protect the riverboat revenue."

Last year the Senate passed a plan that would have raised $75million for the state budget by reducing the amount of money casino communities could collect in casino taxes.

Ohio County and Rising Sun would have lost nearly $5.9million.

But while most of the state's casino communities were affected, legislators' biggest complaint involved the city of Lawrenceburg, where Argosy is the state's highest-revenue boat. The city receives about $25million in wagering and admissions taxes and another $46million annually from a local agreement with the casino.

And unlike other casino communities, it hadn't shared any of that revenue with surrounding counties.


This year, on the advice of Gov. Mitch Daniels and area lawmakers, Lawrenceburg Mayor Bill Cunningham developed a somewhat similar program, one that is meant to stimulate growth, retention and improvement of the economic development climate in southeastern Indiana.

The $10 million grant program is perhaps the biggest piece.

Officials in nine area counties — including Jackson, Jennings and Jefferson — can apply for grants for projects related to economic development. A selection committee that includes Cunningham, a Lawrenceburg city councilman, the city manager, a representative of the governor's office and a state economic development official will decide who gets grants.

Also, the city plans to fund some projects that fill a regional need.

Cunningham, in a recent letter to Nugent and Bischoff, said that while the city plans to spend much of its money on Dearborn County projects, "the overall impact will be widely felt throughout the region."

"The new Tanners Creek U.S. 50 bridge and the new Ivy Tech Community College are just two local projects that have a great deal of regional impact," he said. "We are very fortunate to be able to assist our neighbors in building a stronger economic base for their communities and for a stronger Indiana."

Daniels recently called Lawrenceburg's program "a very wise move" that should help convince lawmakers that casino communities should keep their money.

The governor said he believes a "deal is a deal" and so casino communities should be allowed to keep the revenue they were promised. But he said the criticism of Lawrenceburg's failure to share with counties "that are struggling and poorer" was legitimate.

"I really thought they had a responsibility to address the criticism that it wasn't being shared wisely or properly," Daniels said. "They've done a great job in providing an answer to those criticisms."

Markt Lytle, a former legislator who now lobbies on behalf of Belterra Casino, said that Lawrenceburg officials took a "courageous step" in agreeing to distribute money regionally.

But he said that it probably won't stop lawmakers in the future from looking at local casino-tax revenue.

"I'm not sure they'll ever really take the money," he said of lawmakers. "It would be a difficult thing to do, but it's an issue that's going to keep coming back."