CIB to hold emergency meeting Friday

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - The Capital Improvement Board is struggling to come back from a big defeat handed down by the General Assembly. Lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on the bailout plan before Wednesday night's deadline.

"This General Assembly, this house, has refused to give the Capitol City the tools to save tens of thousands of jobs. It's a tremendous mistake. A big mistake," said State Representative Brian Bosma.

Now the CIB is literally scrambling to fill a big budget shortfall.

"Very disappointed as to why it didn't go through. We did everything we could to convince folks of what our needs were. So, it didn't happen," CIB President Bob Grand said Thursday.

Grand has called an emergency meeting Friday of the CIB board, which oversees Conseco Fieldhouse and Lucas Oil Stadium. They'll explore other funding options. But the big question is what those options are? The CIB is looking at a $47 million budget deficit. Handling that thus far hasn't been easy. Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard said they must do something. Some 66,000 jobs downtown come from tourism, entertainment and sports. They generate $225 million in sales taxes for the state each year.

"They're going to lose money in the long run because we don't want the convention business to dry up. Really, that's what this is. So, you know when we were asking for a little bit of help and that's all we were asking for, then we're really trying to keep their sales tax coming in over the long haul," Ballard said.

Ballard said one option may be to turn CIB over to the state, but he doesn't really like that idea. Friday's CIB board meeting is set for 11 a.m. in room 101 of the Indiana Convention Center. The general public is encouraged to attend.

24-Hour News 8 and WISHTV.com will have complete coverage of the meeting.