EVANSVILLE — Revenues from Tropicana Evansville are used for numerous local government priorities, from public safety to affordable housing to street improvements.

The loss of at least two weeks of those revenues, and possibly much more, is a reality city officials suddenly must confront.

Tropicana Evansville’s casino and restaurants temporarily shut down at 6 a.m. Monday, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Tropicana Hotel remains open. Le Merigot, the smaller hotel run by Tropicana, is closed for now.

The closure is for a minimum of 14 days, and from the City of Evansville’s point of view, each day matters.

“It’s kind of like getting hit with a fire hose every day,” City Controller Russ Lloyd Jr. said.

The city’s 2020 budget includes about $13.5 million in expenses to be funded by casino revenues. Since it’s still early in the year, much of that amount has not yet been spent.

Lloyd said the city’s casino fund carried a $20 million balance at the end of February. Because some other city funds have run negative balances in recent years, city government has sought to keep its casino fund balance as healthy as possible.

The coronavirus spread is pressuring that situation.

Although Tropicana Evansville said the minimum closure is 14 days, President Donald Trump said at the White House Monday that the pandemic and pleas for social isolation could linger until "July or August."

Mayor Lloyd Winnecke met on Monday with city department heads to discuss items in the city budget to be paid with casino funds, and which ones could be canceled or delayed.

City officials said they were not prepared to discuss specifics, in part because they don't know yet how long the closure will last.

"We'll be tracking what the closure of the casino means in terms of lost revenue, and we'll be changing our capital spending plan appropriately," Winnecke said. "I will tell you what I told our department heads this morning: Just because something is approved in the 2020 budget doesn't mean you'll get to buy it necessarily now."

Tropicana Evansville, French Lick Casino and all other casinos in Indiana are closed under orders from the Indiana Gaming Commission.

Casino funds in 2020 are to fund blighted property removal, an increase in the city's affordable housing trust fund, road resurfacing projects and the zoo's penguin exhibit, among other things.

It remains to be seen if any of those items could be jeopardized by the coronavirus situation and Tropicana's shutdown.

"We’re going to be going back to the mayor at some point with a list and see what we could cancel or defer," Lloyd said, adding: "Obviously, you’ve got an extraordinary situation here."
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