POLITICS

Official: RFRA cost Indy up to 12 conventions and $60M

Brian Eason
IndyStar
An "Indy Welcomes All" banner hung from the ceiling of the terminal at Indianapolis International Airport on April 3, 2015.

The furor surrounding last year's Religious Freedom Restoration Act might have cost the city of Indianapolis as many as 12 conventions and up to $60 million in economic impact, the city's nonprofit tourism arm confirmed Monday evening.

Though they come with some caveats, the numbers from Visit Indy represent the most tangible effects yet of a controversy that city officials and business leaders long warned would cause real damage to Indianapolis' reputation.

When Gov. Mike Pence signed RFRA into law last March, it was met with fierce backlash from civil rights groups across the country, who worried that it would allow Hoosiers to discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people on the basis of religion. Days later, a so-called "fix" was signed into law to clarify that the state law was not intended to override local civil rights protections.

The debate has continued into this session, with business groups and liberals pushing for statewide LGBT civil rights protections, and social conservatives offering a bill to replace RFRA with similar heightened protections for "fundamental rights" granted by the state constitution, including freedom of religious expression, freedom of speech and the right to bear arms.

For Indy powerbrokers, a dilemma on LGBT rights

The economic impact figures, first reported Monday evening by the Associated Press, figure to bolster RFRA's opponents heading into a series of hearings on the bills Wednesday. Even some Republicans who support LGBT protections, such as Senate President Pro Tempore David Long, R-Fort Wayne, have cast doubt on the validity of the economic argument, because no conventions followed through on threats to leave Indy last year.

But after the AP reported the figures, Chris Gahl, vice president of marketing for Visit Indy, confirmed publicly what his group has been sharing with elected officials in recent weeks: Last year, 12 conventions cited RFRA as one reason they chose not to book Indianapolis.

"Measured after April 1, we have tracked 12 conventions, who, when asked proactively, 'why didn’t you pick Indianapolis?' have answered, unaided, 'RFRA,' " Gahl said.

"In some cases, it was the only reason. In some cases, it was one of a handful of reasons," he added. "But all 12, it was proactively brought up as a blockade from booking Indianapolis."

Revisiting RFRA before LGBT rights debate

Democrats on Monday seized quickly on the results.

"It’s baffling how delusional Mike Pence is on his claim that there’s no direct correlation between LGBT rights and the Hoosier economy," Drew Anderson, spokesman for the Indiana Democratic Party, said in a statement. "In fact, Pence’s out-of-touch ideology comes from an ideologue — not a governor. When he signed RFRA last year, Mike Pence threw Indiana directly into a $250 million economic panic, including Indianapolis’ $60 million.”

In an emailed statement to the Associated Press, Pence spokeswoman Kara Brooks said Indiana was a "welcoming" state with a strong economy. She noted multiple organizations that have expanded their role or recommitted to hosting conventions and events in the state, including the NFL scouting combine and the FFA.

In the context of Indy's $4.5 billion tourism industry, $60 million is a small piece of the pie. The 12 conventions that rejected Indy are out of as many as 1,000 the city pursues each year — and it isn't even clear that all 12 would have booked Indy in RFRA's absence. If a few would have gone elsewhere anyway, the $60 million estimate would come down.

Gahl, though, suggested the number actually might be even higher. He said that those 12 are only the ones they know about from internal surveys; there might have been others.

Poll: Damage from RFRA lingers, but severity unclear

A perception poll conducted by Reach Market Planning & Walker Research found that while 58 percent of meeting planners recalled RFRA when asked if Indy had been in the news recently, just 23 percent of events that didn't book Indianapolis listed the city's "perception" as the explanation.

Still, Gahl said there are other troubling indicators. For one thing, Visit Indy is in the running for fewer conventions today than at this same period in each of the past three years.

And, he said, the effects continue to linger. “We’ve been asked about (RFRA) as recently as last week at a trade show in Vancouver — about what was happening in Indianapolis, what will happen in Indianapolis and what might get done at the Statehouse," Gahl said.

More data are expected to be shared Thursday at Visit Indy's annual state of tourism address.

The Associated Press contributed to this story. Call IndyStar reporter Brian Eason at (317) 444-6129. Follow him on Twitter: @brianeason.