This isn’t going to be a magical fix for everything,” King said. He fears, however, that money may not always be there. King, who left office in 2006, said he still sees casinos as a good thing for the city, even if the revenues are spent on items that aren’t visible to the public like improving its long-suffering downtown, which still has some of the same vacant buildings as it did in 1996. Since casinos were introduced to Gary, they’ve generated $381 million for the city, according to figures obtained from the Indiana State Budget Agency. “The bloom faded somewhat, in a fairly short period of time.”
“As time marched on, this capital funding source really, really got diminished because of actions by the state legislature,” King said. Gary was forced to use its casino revenues to shore up its sagging operating budget. Steel and changes to how property taxes were assessed, dramatically decreased the amount property taxes collected. The city purchased new police cars and fire equipment, fixed some streets and made needed infrastructure repairs.īut moves by state lawmakers, including giving huge tax breaks to U.S.
