Northwest Indiana Discussion

http://www.in.gov/dlgf/files/Fiscal_Monitor_Report_12-09.pdf

Reading the the Public Financial Management for Gary, on pages 14 &15 it makes reference to the Gary Casino Bankrupcy. The casino funds Gary's RDA payment. If the fund does not receive Gary's payment will this affect the RDA's contribution to fund some of the Wolf Lake Plans?

Would this mean that the project woudl be cancelled or that Hammond Taxpayes would be responsible for a Larger share of the costs?

How much debt is Hammond currently servicing? Does anyone have a figure on that?

Majestic Star is making payments to the City and to its vendors under agreement with the bankruptcy court. Barden will probably lose control of the casino to his bondholders or it will be sold via bankruptcy.

Worst case scenario is that Gary is on the hook for RDA payments under the state agreement. Unless Porter County can get out of the deal, Gary would be stuck as well. The legal opinion is its not just as simple as voting out. The agreement was for 10 years.

Gary is already at least 2 quarters behind in it's RDA payments though. I think they finally made the payment for the 1st quarter of 2009 a month or 2 ago.

Matt, good perspective and thanks for filling in the blanks, but the questions still unaswered, the projects in the pipeline, can the be funded with out full financial particpation from the various contributors.

all this does is create an unfunded, promisory iou. if the money has not been received and it source is in question, then can, should the project go through?

You have to remember that the state contributed $120 Million over 10 years from the Major Moves money. Most of the money from the airport hasn't been spent yet, so there should still be a rather large chunk of change sitting in the RDA accounts. Not to mention the money that has already been paid from the localities involved.

I see no reason why this project couldn't be fully funded by the RDA as planned. Don't take that as my being in favor of the Wolf Lake plans because I feel it is a flawed plan and a waste of money to begin with.

Matt, there are two of us who believe the plan is flawed.