The slot are coming

Is Anderson ready? The Herald -Bulletin has an article here. I know, I know, a bit of stale news. That is what happens when one has to make a living.

I still think my question is fresh: what economic boost does Hoosier Park provide to Anderson and Madison County. I have never seen any numbers (and some numbers ought to be available to the public) but here are the areas where I think Hoosier Park ought to be contributing to the community:

1. Property taxes. Yes, one of the numbers that ought to be available to the public.
2. Other taxes and assessments. More public numbers.
3. Employment of locals and their paying local income tax.
4. Employees having increased purchasing power which in turn means more local purchases and more local sale tax collections. I know that is an ugly description for this category but irregardless of that I think it describes the interplay between Hoosier park wages and the local economy. I suspect these numbers might be analyzed somehow but I frankly lack the mathematics to know how or who could do the analysis.
5. Money brought into the county by Hoosier Park that goes to other venues. Another not readily ascertainable number but not impossible. Does the money brought into the county by Hoosier Park go anywhere else but Hoosier Park?

I think the last category the most important. Call these monies tourism dollars. Of these tourism dollars, does anything get spent in Anderson between I-69 and Hoosier Park? Do the gas stations, bars, convenience stores, shops, or hotels at Scatterfield and I-69 profit from Hoosier Park? What of the restaurants and museums and businesses further away Hoosier Park? My instincts say that the impact is probably not much.

So if the tourists come into Anderson, gamble at Hoosier Park and then leave without spending a single dollar anywhere else in Madison County, I suggest Anderson is not maximizing the potential of Hoosier Park. I do not see slot machines suddenly changing Anderson's tourist trade.

I thought for a long time the City of Anderson had a leadership role here. Coordinating the promotion of local businesses (such as the hotel trade and restaurants) and activities (our various local festivals) with the horse track seems a role made for the City. Yes, some gamblers will have no interest but others might have an interest - if they know all that Anderson has to offer. Consider how Las Vegas has shifted from a city about gambling to a city that is a huge amusement park with gambling at its center. Families come to Vegas not just the high rollers. Getting Hoosier Park coordinated with the rest of Anderson's economy would mean -to me - that Anderson is ready for the slot machines.

As many who know me and those who read this blog know, I favor commuter rail between Anderson and Indianapolis. Mostly we here think of the advantages for those working in Indianapolis but living here. I have another use for commuter rail - bringing people from Indianapolis to Hoosier Park. I would go so far as to condemn any commuter rail that does not provide for getting passengers from wherever it stops in Anderson to Hoosier Park. I would think the closer any Anderson depot was to the hotels and to Hoosier Park the more profitable would be that commuter line. (Depending on the Indianapolis end of the line, it seems that same commuter line might make our hotels/motels more acceptable to patrons of races at a track on West 16th Street).