Governor Pence's Economic Development Agency Throwing Millions In Wasted Tax Dollars To Billionaire Herb Simon's Indiana Pacers

Gov. Mike Pence may not care whether you can afford to buy health insurance, but he wants to make sure more of your tax dollars are put into the pocket of one of the state's few billionaires, Herb Simon, who believes it's the responsibility of taxpayers to subsidize whatever business undertaking he has within this state. The Indiana Economic Development Corporation is paying his Indiana Pacers millions of dollars for a completely useless sponsorship opportunity that won't create one single job in this state. This is in addition to the millions annually in state revenues that are being diverted to the CIB to subsidize the Pacers to the tune of over $10 million annually, in addition to the rent-free use of the arena and retention of all revenues generated by the facility. According to the IBJ's Anthony Schoettle, the IEDC becomes the first sponsor to pay to have its name emblazoned on the hardwood of the basketball court inside Banker's Life Fieldhouse.

For that right, sources close to the league said, IEDC--which previously had no in-venue signage deals with the Pacers--will pay a low-seven-figure sum over two years. The floor signage, along with other fieldhouse advertising IEDC bought, will debut at the Oct. 16 preseason game against the Dallas Mavericks . . .

The NBA reserves the right to remove the ad during nationally broadcast games on TNT and ESPN.

So the IEDC will shell out millions of dollars to have the slogan, "A State That Works," emblazoned on the hardwood, which may not even show up on nationally-televised broadcasts of the team's games. Anyone with a brain knows that this is nothing more than yet another way of utilizing taxpayer dollars to subsidize the Indiana Pacers. There is absolutely no benefit from this advertising. It is absolutely shameless how much we as taxpayers are being forced to subsidize this greedy billionaire's NBA team. The best thing that could happen to this state and city is for Herb Simon to pack up this team and get it the hell out of here. It is nothing but a blood-sucking enterprise that is depleting valuable tax dollars that could be more wisely spent elsewhere.

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