C'mon, the Convention Industry is the foundati...

2014-08-12T18:29:18.049-05:00

C'mon, the Convention Industry is the foundation of the economic engine that is downtown Indy!

The NGOs funded with our taxpayer dollars are noth...

2014-08-12T11:16:30.269-05:00

The NGOs funded with our taxpayer dollars are nothing more than money laundering schemes to hide from the public what they can't get away doing with our taxpayer dollars through expenditures of governmental units. Imagine if you owned a business like one of the downtown hotels who are allowed to use our public taxpayer dollars to do all of their advertising for them for free, along with soliciting for them the greatest share of their annual revenues. Hell, they don't even have to use their own money to wine and dine potential clients. Visit Indy uses our taxpayer dollars and does that for them. It's a criminal racket that needs to be shut down. It's not our responsibility to totally fund the marketing budgets of the downtown hotel and restaurant businesses.

Alas, the Local Media will not investigate the Cro...

2014-08-12T11:01:45.298-05:00

Alas, the Local Media will not investigate the Crony-Capitalism in Indianapolis.

I looked over the CIB Financial Statement ending 12/31/2012. It states the following:

"In December 2012, the CIB and Visit Indy agreed to extend the term of the agreement until December 31, 2014 and thereby
continue to provide base compensation in the
amount of $9,030,000 in 2013 and 2014.

In addition, the CIB contributed $3,000,000 to Visit Indy
in December 2012, portions of which may be credited against the base compensation or refunded to
the CIB in 2013 or 2014, respectively, if certain conditions are not met by Visit Indy.

As mentioned previously in these notes, the CIB has also entered into an Interlocal Agreement with
the Department of Metropolitan Development of the City of Indianapolis and Marion County. This agreement provides $8,000,000 of annual assistance that will be used to fund the CIB’s payments to Visit Indy.

In 2010, an Interlocal Cooperation Agreement was established pursuant to which the Metropolitan Development Commission of Marion County, Indiana, acting in its capacity as the Redevelopment
Commission of the City of Indianapolis, Indiana (the “Redevelopment Commission”), provides $8,000,000 of funding annually to the CIB to further their mutual purposes, including to better assure the CIB’s funding sources for Visit Indy, Inc.

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So I guess if I added this up correctly the Base Compensation plus The Metropolitan Development "Contribution" is $17M a year to Visit Indy. Maybe $20M if you include the "Additional CIB Contribution."
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There is no mention of the Strings attached to these pay-offs, i.e., Performance expectations, etc. Is there a contract the Public can view??

You might think in the tradition of Capitalism Visit Indy should be self-sustaining via contributions from Private Industry, but Capitalism does not work for the CIB as whole. Crony-Capitalism does however.

Comments on Advance Indiana™: Chicago Spending Millions To Provide Subsidies To Lure And Retain Conventions

C'mon, the Convention Industry is the foundati...

The NGOs funded with our taxpayer dollars are noth...

Alas, the Local Media will not investigate the Cro...