A story in yesterday morning's paper jogged a memory for us and we did a little research in our own archives.
The item in question was headed "DOWNTOWN BOON BABY!" It reinforced, no doubt without meaning to do so, the thought we have held for along time. This "boon" - the fabulous impact of professional sports we have had drummed into our minds by this same paper is just that - a downtown boon.
This is particularly true of the basketball franchise because of the large difference in the number of games, plus the fact that the fieldhouse seems to book more large events than the stadium. As has been pointed out by many others, we're talking about discretionary spending and the money used downtown is, in fact, money not being spent somewhere else in the city.
This leads us back in time to a post we made on this blog on December 8, 2005. On that date we suggested an alternative to Tax Increment District (TIF) financing of downtown projects, to be known as Revenue Increment District (RIF). (Actually at the time we used the term "Income" Increment District.)
Briefly, an RIF would function by taxing the specific increases in revenues of downtown businesses which we are now told are easily identified. This current story in the paper indicates how easy - and how appropriate - the use of an RIF would be. There are quotes from several business owners who admit that their business revenues increase from 25% to 40% when there is an event at the Conseco Fieldhouse. The same is undoubtedly true for Colts games.
Downtown businesses are obviously the very direct beneficiaries of taxpayer "investments." And yes, we know the arguments about jobs, etc.. But it might well be the case that, while things are booming downtown, restaurants and bars in outlying areas are laying off bartenders, cooks and/or servers simply because that money has moved downtown.
We've been told the economic impact of the situation involves hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars flowing into city coffers as a result of these taxpayer investments. If these estimates are anywhere near the truth, why not tax these increased receipts directly, up front, to pay for the projects responsible for the revenues generated by their presence?
Property tax relief? We wouldn't even try to guess how many property tax dollars an RIF would free up for legitimate governmental functions!