AJ Colley, Shelbyville News Staff Writer

As local officials aim to direct racino revenues to bolster economic development, Indiana’s other community with a racino is using the money to stay solvent.

Shelbyville’s Indiana Live! casino has brought in millions of racino revenues to Shelby County. In Madison County, a racino that opened in Anderson in 2008 brings the community a similar miscellaneous revenue stream. Since Hoosier Park Racing and Casino opened in Anderson in 2008, about $9.94 million in racino revenues has been given to Madison County and its city and town entities, according to information provided by the Madison County auditor.

Comparatively, in just one month shy of the same time period Anderson’s racino has been opened, Shelby County’s government units have received about $9.8 million in racino revenues.

The similarities stop at the dollar figures.

Shelby County and Shelbyville officials have suggested using a majority of racino revenues for economic development. In Madison County and Anderson, racino revenues are paying for everyday expenses for county and city departments.

“When it first started, they wanted to use it for this, this or this, but we needed the revenue in the general fund,” Anderson Controller Karen Carpenter said.

Caps put on property taxes by state lawmakers affected the city’s budget, Carpenter said. It left Anderson with no option but to use racino revenues for operating expenses. Currently, the slot machine wagering fee fund in Anderson pays for the expenses for five departments — economic development, municipal development, planning, engineering and information services. The expenses include salaries and benefits for the employees in those departments.

Carpenter said she hasn’t heard concerns from people about using the money for operating expenses after Hoosier Park’s parent company recently filed for bankruptcy to reorganize its debt. But she said it’s a concern in the back of her mind.

Madison County is also using its racino revenues to hold up its general fund, Auditor Kathy Stoops-Wright said.

“We do have a fund set up, if we are ever able to put it in that fund and just use it for projects,” Stoops-Wright said.

But for now, Madison County hasn’t been able to afford using its racino money in that fashion, she said.

“We are in a very serious financial situation,” Stoops-Wright said.

Madison County has used $3.1 million to support its general fund and operating expenses since Hoosier Park opened in mid-2008, according to Stoops-Wright’s numbers.

The closing of the racino is always a concern to the community, Stoops-Wright said, though the recent bankruptcy filing puts it fresher in people’s minds. If Hoosier Park ever closed, the loss of racino revenue would be a hard hit, but Stoops-Wright said the community would also suffer because of the job losses.

“If they would close the doors today, we would be in big trouble,” she said.

Anderson Mayor Kris Ockomon remains more optimistic, and said only people who don’t understand the bankruptcy would say Hoosier Park faces any real threat of closing.

“I feel very confident that they’re not going away,” Ockomon said.

Like Madison County, Ockomon said he and others in Anderson had bigger plans for racino revenues, before the economy began to slip.

“We had planned initially to use the money for a scholarship program, copied after Hammond, Indiana,” he said.

Ockomon said the Hammond program was based off using casino revenues.

Several communities in Indiana have been working with casino revenues for years, though rules and amounts of money vary significantly. Compared to land-based racinos in Shelby County and Madison County, riverboat communities in the state can filter many more millions into their communities in some cases.

In Northwest Indiana, which is dotted with riverboats along the Lake Michigan shore, the General Assembly and Gov. Mitch Daniels created the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority.

According to the RDA’s state-run Web site, East Chicago, Gary, Hammond and Lake County each invest $3.5 million per year in casino revenue for the RDA. The state invests a portion of money, and Porter County gives non-casino revenues to the project, since it has no casino.

The legislature has designated that the money be used for the expansion of the Gary Chicago Airport, extension of the South Shore commuter rail line, redevelopment of the Lake Michigan shoreline and investment in the Regional Bus Authority. It can also go toward other economic development efforts.

An entirely different situation can be found in the far southern part of the state. Evidence of revenues from the riverboat casino in Lawrenceburg are evident throughout the community, according to multiple archive stories from The Register in Dearborn County.

An October 2009 story in the Toledo Free Press newspaper includes a quote from Lawrenceburg Mayor Bill Cunningham, listing the numerous projects the city has been able to do as a result of the casino.

“We have built new swimming pools, splash parks, a skateboard park, a community center, firehouse, remodeled the police station, funded a library, funded an expansion of the hospital, new storm drains, a new water-treatment plant, a new $22 million bridge … I could go on and on,” Cunningham told the Free Press. “We built a new parking garage. The hospital has an MRI for cancer detection; there are only two of them in the country, and the city paid for it. We have our own utility companies, gas, water and electric. Every nonprofit in the area shares in the money. Development grants are shared. We host free festivals and concerts; Willie Nelson was here last week. Graduating seniors who go to college and maintain a grade-point average get about $1,800 a year. We put money away for health coverage for our workers. We don’t have school levies. All of this has been done without raising taxes.”