House speaker: Funding plan for stadium dead

INDIANAPOLIS -- House Speaker Brian Bosma said Thursday there is no chance the Legislature will approve Mayor Bart Peterson's proposal to expand gambling to help finance a new Indianapolis Colts stadium.\nThe mayor challenged Bosma to come up with a better plan.\n"If somebody has a better idea, I'm willing to listen to it," Peterson said. "What we need is $46 million a year to be able to pay the debt service on this new stadium."\nPeterson last month unveiled a plan for a new 63,000-seat stadium, which would have a retractable roof and could be expanded to 70,000 seats to host a Super Bowl. The facility is projected to cost between $550 million and $700 million and is seen as the key to keeping the Colts in Indianapolis once their lease with the RCA Dome, the NFL's smallest stadium, expires after the 2013 season.\nUnder Peterson's plan, Colts owner Jim Irsay and the NFL would contribute $100 million in loans. The city also would ask the Legislature to approve pull-tab machines, which resemble slot machines, for horse racing tracks in Anderson and Shelbyville and an off-track betting parlor in Indianapolis. The latter was the apparent deal-killer for Bosma.\n"As far as I'm concerned, that proposal's dead," said Bosma, an Indianapolis Republican. "He ought to find another (funding) mechanism."\nPeterson, however, said he's convinced his proposal is still the best option.\n"I've spent the last two years thinking through this very difficult issue and thinking through all the alternatives," he said. "For the speaker to suggest ... that I have to come up with an alternative to what I've been proposing isn't going to help get this stadium built. And if we don't get the stadium built, we're going to lose the Colts."\nPeterson said his plan, developed after lengthy discussions with the Colts, would guarantee the team would remain in Indianapolis for the next 30 years. It also would allow expansion of the convention center adjoining the RCA Dome. He said the plan doesn't rely on an increase in income, property or sales taxes.\nBosma said creating what he called a "casino" downtown in one of the most family friendly cities in the Midwest would not work. He noted that other cities have built less expensive facilities and used more private money to pay for them.\n"The foundations in this city do extraordinary work," Peterson countered. "If you look at what the not-for-profit community has accomplished in this city over time, to suggest they aren't doing their fair share of the work I think is really, really unfair."\nHouse Minority Leader Pat Bauer, a Democrat from South Bend, said he thinks there are other options.\n"We have to find another horse to ride," Bauer said.\nProposals to bring pull tabs to the tracks and off-track betting facilities have failed the past two years. Horse racing officials say they are necessary to save the struggling industry, but legislative leaders have frowned on the proposals.\n"I've never said I was excited about the idea of a facility like this in downtown Indianapolis," said Peterson, a Democrat. "What I've said is some sort of pull-tab facility that raises this revenue is the best among a lot of not very attractive alternatives. You can't raise this kind of money ... without doing something that's not going to be very attractive."\nMessages seeking comment were left with the Colts.