Capital Improvement Board Budget Meeting - August 21, 2026
Capital Improvement Board Budget Meeting - August 21, 2026
The Capital Improvement Board (CIB) of Marion County convened on August 21, 2026, to consider the 2027 budget, review June 2026 financials, receive operational reports from venue and partner organizations, and approve contracts and claims. The meeting featured a detailed budget presentation, a tribute to a longtime Visit Indy employee, and unanimous approval of all action items.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of July 2026 meeting minutes: Unanimously approved by voice vote after a brief procedural discussion regarding roll-call requirements for budget meetings. The board opted to proceed with a standard voice vote.
Discussion Items
- 2027 Budget Presentation and Resolution: Tim (remote) and Caroline presented the proposed 2027 budget. Key figures included:
- Total revenues: $19 million increase (9%) over the 2026 budget.
- Total expenses: Decrease of $1.8 million (0.7%) from the 2026 budget.
- Net negative of $13.9 million, to be covered by unrestricted operating reserves (projected at $189 million at end of 2027, down from $219 million in June 2026).
- Tax revenues: $169.362 million, up 6%, with conservative 3% increases for hotel/motel, food/beverage, auto rental, and stadium taxes; admissions tax up 5% after venue-by-venue analysis.
- Operating revenues: $62 million, up 21% ($10.5 million), driven by rental income, labor reimbursements, food service (Sodexo outperforming budget by 59%), and ticket office income (accounting change and increased concerts: 5 in 2027 vs. 2 in 2026).
- Operating expenses: $33.8 million, up 5% ($1.4 million), including 3% salary increases, 5% medical insurance increase, and union health/welfare/pension increases per new contracts.
- Supplies: Slightly increased due to IT server power costs.
- Other services: Up $3.7 million (3%), with increases for legal ($750,000), architect/engineers ($1.8 million), and consultants ($923,000), attributed to potential facility developments (e.g., soccer stadium, Lucas Oil Stadium, Gainbridge FieldHouse). Chair noted these are preparatory funds; specific projects would require board approval later.
- Capital investments: $5.7 million decrease, with major items including exterior signage ($8M), control room equipment ($3M), office renovation ($2M), roof replacement ($2M), and others. Clarified that some Lucas Oil Stadium projects may involve cost-sharing with the Colts, but full amounts must be budgeted.
- Debt service: Down $1.3 million (4%) per bond schedules.
- Salary grades: Approved with 3% increase, consistent with budget assumptions.
- Chair Redick commended the staff for a solid budget, noting that projected negative is smaller than post-pandemic years and that reserves are healthy.
- CIB Monthly Financial Report – June 2026: Tim reported a negative bottom line of $635,000, unfavorably $2.9 million below prior year due to a timing shift in debt service payment (bond trustee paid June 1 instead of May 31, causing a $7 million unfavorable variance). Without that, the month would have shown a $6.5 million favorable result. Tax revenues ($16.6M) were strong due to May activity (Morgan Wallen concerts, Indy 500). PSDA hit the $24 million cap as expected. Operating revenues ($4.7M) up 20% due to labor reimbursements for the Post Malone concert. Expenses: personal services up $0.5M for same concert; supplies underspent; other services up $1.5M due to storage and Visit Indy grant. Capital outlay $1.7M (half prior year), primarily Signia Skywalk and field house fall protection. Debt service $8.4M. Board members asked no questions.
- Field House Management Report: Mad Oliver reported 148 events in FY2026 (down from 157), with variances due to G-League play moving to Noblesville and Fever schedule timing. Budgeted 149 events for next year. Highlights: Benson Boone concert in June, first night of Sports of Four, two NCAA games.
- Visit Indy Report: Leonard presented strong hotel performance:
- June: Best June on record for Marion County hotel revenue, average daily rate (ADR), and RevPAR. Downtown also had best June ADR.
- Year-to-date: Marion County room sales up 3.7%, revenue up 7.8%; downtown revenue up 6% (record pace).
- Booking goals: 92% year-to-date, but 136% on lead goal; on pace for record year.
- ASAE conference: Post-pandemic record of 5,300 attendees, including 3,300 decision makers (expected 2,500). Reported economic impact $7.3M (CIB conservative) vs. $13M+ from ASAE. Anticipated over $1 billion in future bookings from leads. CIB contributed $1 million in support (included in other grants line).
- Tribute to Lester McKinney, longtime Visit Indy employee, who passed away July 31. Services held on meeting day.
- Chair Redick noted ongoing collaboration between CIB and Visit Indy on budget planning.
- Convention Center Sales Report: Taylor reported July occupancy 54.5% with attendance 117,199 (boosted by USA Volleyball). Gen Con set a new attendance record of ~75,000 (previous 72,000). Hosted IEVM (industry event) with high marks; ASAE concluded successfully. Upcoming: National Guard Association of the United States (148th General Council, ~4,000 attendees, first visit since 2001).
- Lucas Oil Stadium Report: Taylor (also reporting for LOS) noted Colts activities ramping up (rehearsals, pro shop grand opening), employee training. Announced Chris Brown/Usher concert on Halloween (60-day turnaround). Upcoming: Colts preseason games vs. Falcons and Lions, Bruno Mars on September 9. Ongoing projects: fall protection, signage, roof maintenance, field maintenance.
- Construction Projects Update: Andy reported on Signia Hotel project: substantial completion expected in ~60 days. Logistics challenges with overlapping FFE (furniture, equipment) and contractor activities. Capitol Street has four concurrent projects (Signia, Georgia Street, utility project for redundant steam/chill water, and skybridge). Skybridge beams erected; north of Blue Easy closed until hotel opens.
Key Outcomes
- 2027 Budget Approved: Motion to approve the 2027 budget resolution carried unanimously by voice vote. The budget includes total revenues of approximately $231 million and total expenses of approximately $245 million, with a net negative covered by reserves. Salary grades for 2027 also approved.
- Contract Awarded (Amended): A sole-source contract with Moss Audio Corporation for field house technology improvement (upgrade of 37 cameras, cabling, workstations) was initially presented at $158,244.35. After discussion, the amount was corrected to not exceed $205,666. The motion to approve as amended was seconded and carried unanimously.
- Claims Approved: Operating voucher ($5,145,873.11) and confirming voucher ($9,026,187.35) were approved unanimously. Vouchers included items related to hotel emergency services, skywalk work, and an NCAA alcohol sales refund.
- Meeting Adjourned: No further business or public comments. The meeting ended with thanks to staff for hosting industry events (IEVM and ASAE).
Meeting Transcript
Good morning, everyone. I'd like to call the meeting the capital improvement board in Marion County to order. Welcome. Glad to see everybody here today. We'll get cracking because today's our budget consideration meeting, so a little longer than usual. Appreciate everybody's patience for the entire hour, I'm sure we'll take. First item on the agenda is approval then it's from our July meeting, and our votes will be roll call today. So discussion. Do they have to be don't they have to be roll call because we're not roll call? They're not going to be able to do that. Nobody virtually is voted. Nobody virtually people just put their hands or something. Because it's because we're considering the budget. Oh, so that applies to the entire meeting. Not just the I okay for them. It's an odd thing that cannot participate. Okay. Just because it's the budget, we'll go back to our normal participation and voting. Yeah. For every other uh meeting we have. I'll call roll call anyway. Uh no, it's alright. Let's move. Let's go. All those in favor say aye. Any opposed. Okay. Thank you. All right. Next step is budget presentation and board resolution. Tim who joins us remotely and Caroline's here for questions. Good morning. Everybody hear me? Yep. All right. Good. Um budget 2027. Uh just a quick summary of it. Um, total revenues are up 19 million over 9%. Um, one part um that I'm excited, most excited about is the total expenses are down from the 26th budget, 1.8 million dollars or 0.7%. Um just today's economy. I think that's pretty impressive to be down in expenses. Um the net amount um for the 2027 budget is a negative 13.9 million dollars. Um that as always that negative uh net amount will be covered by utilizing the funds in our unrestricted operating reserves. Um as of June 30th of 2026, um, we had 219 million dollars in that operating reserve. Um I'm forecasting at the end of this year we'll have 203. So if that we did have 19 or 13.9 million dollar um negative amount at the end, that would take um the end of 2027 down to one point or 189 million dollars, um, which I think is still a pretty comfortable level of operating reserves. Um one thing I did want to remind everybody is um what I call the operation budget that we build in contingency into this budget, um, mainly for two uh um reasons. One is any unforeseen um repairs, which we actually um recently had um one of those happened during Gen Con with um some uh 50, 60 year old piping in the building that um uh that so we had uh some of the heavy rains came through and wrote some piping. Um and so we have used some of those contingencies to uh repair the piping, and so the the event had minimal effect.
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