CIB Out Of Business As Of September 1?

Not surprisingly, the CIB has called an emergency board meeting for tomorrow morning at 11:00 a.m. as a consequence of the General Assembly adjourning last night without approving the $47 million bailout proposal for the CIB. In recent months, we've heard the CIB's President Bob Grand suggest that Lucas Oil Stadium might be closed if the rescue plan failed. Last week, CIB Treasurer Ann Lathrop told a legislative committee that the CIB had a contingency plan to start cancelling conventions if the legislature failed to approve the bailout plan. Expect the "sky is falling" dramatics to pick up even more at tomorrow morning's emergency meeting. I'm picking up indications that the CIB plans to announce that it will no longer be able to conduct business as of September 1, 2009 because of its budget shortfall. The CIB faces a $27 million debt payment in September. The CIB rushed to repay a $17 million debt to the State of Indiana earlier this month, which came due in June. It could have asked the State to defer the payment but chose not to in order to put further pressure on the state legislature to win approval of its bailout plan, which calls for a series of higher taxes and the capturing of additional state revenues from an expanded professional sports development area downtown. Governor Daniels may wait until June to call the legislature back into a special session to approve a 2-year state budget. CIB leaders are likely to renew efforts to get a bailout plan approved during the special session as part of the state budget.