When the Indiana Gateway website showed no line item for “Events” in Griffith’s 2024 budget, it cast doubt on whether the town would host its usual slate of outdoor events this year, amid financial issues that surfaced during 2023 and the fact its festivals and events have continued to mostly operate at a deficit over the past several years.
Indiana Gateway, a website where all line items for all state taxing units are listed, showed that Griffith budgeted $605,902 for “Events” in 2023. Despite nothing listed in the “Events” category for 2024, the Griffith Town Council approved a slate of festivals for the remainder of the year along with alcohol sales at its Feb. 20 meeting.
The events include Central Market, Broad Blues & BBQ Fest, Oktoberfest, Fall Harvest Festival, Symphony in the Park, Park Full of Art, and Rock ‘n Rail Fest, which is the town’s four-day signature event held over Labor Day weekend.
Marker questions festival funding
Before casting his vote to approve this year’s festival lineup, Councilman Jim Marker R-1st, questioned town officials over how the town planned to fund the festivals this year, given there is no Indiana Gateway line item for them. He asked whether the funding would come from the town’s general fund or perhaps Griffith’s share of County Economic Development Income Tax (CEDIT) funds.
“We’ve never taken any money out of the general fund (for festivals),” said Town Council President Rick Ryfa, R-3rd. “Not one cent.”
Clerk-Treasurer Gina Smith indicated that there are “line items” in the 2024 budget for festivals, as Marker requested that she show him where they are listed as such in the budget.
Indiana Gateway showed Griffith budgeted $605,902 for “Events” in 2023. The 2023 line item was a 62% increase over the 2022 “Events” budget line item of $373,099, which itself was a 22% increase over the 2021 line item of $303,055, the Gateway documents show. When the pandemic hit in 2020, Griffith’s event budget was $300,052.
Mitch Wilson, Government Technical Assistance & Compliance Director for the Indiana State Board of Accounts (SBOA), said that it is not improper for Griffith to exempt “Events” from Indiana Gateway.
“Even if the town may not currently have any funds appropriated for events and miscellaneous (expenditures), they have the ability to seek an additional appropriation through the Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF),” Wilson told the Post-Tribune. “The Indiana Code that discusses additional appropriations is IC 6-1.1-18-5 through which those are certified by DLGF.”
Rock ‘n Rail location debated
Marker asked Ryfa, Councilman Tony Hobson, R-5th, and Councilwoman Melissa Robbins, R-4th, at the meeting — Councilman Larry Ballah was absent — whether Griffith’s downtown business community would be better served if Rock ‘n Rail was moved over to Central Park or some other location away from the business district.
Marker’s council ward encompasses many of those Broad Street businesses, and he believes the event has had some negative impact on their establishments. During last year’s Post-Tribune investigation into Griffith’s festivals, several downtown business owners expressed their dissatisfaction that Rock ‘n Rail and other events had on their ability to conduct business.
“I do know there is impact during Labor Day weekend,” Marker said at the council meeting.
Ryfa countered that businesses who may have previously expressed that they lost money now say they are “sorry” for saying that, but he did not specify which businesses. He claimed they now say they have done well during Rock ‘n Rail. He added that Rock ‘n Rail would take “a tenth of the effort” to put on at Central Park, but the businesses don’t want it.
“The festival (Rock ‘n Rail) was started with the intention of helping the businesses downtown during the worst (sales) weekend ever,” said Hobson, referring to Labor Day weekend. “We started it as sidewalk sales and other things, and it grew to a great festival just like other festivals around that area, like Pierogi Fest.”
Hobson’s business, Set ‘Em Up, 135 N. Broad St., is certainly one benefactor of Rock ‘n Rail Fest, as his bar-restaurant-bowling alley features an outdoor party deck that is usually packed during the event. In addition, the tips that some of the Rock ‘n Rail volunteers receive go toward a thank-you party that was held at Set ‘Em Up last year.
“We know Tony (Hobson) does pretty well,” Marker said.
Festival losses mount amid town financial issues
Although helping give the town a higher profile and, as Ryfa and Hobson have expressed, “marketing the town,” Griffith’s festivals and events operated at a loss in 2023, according to a recent Post-Tribune report.
To check the accounting spreadsheets the town provided via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the newspaper contacted a local, independent Certified Public Accountant to analyze figures from the clerk’s office. The CPA placed the 2023 losses at $39,824, noting a gross margin of -7.4%.
Rock ‘n Rail Fest appears to have turned a modest profit in 2023. The event’s revenues cameto $300,844.63 against appropriations (costs) of $295,336.59, thereby showing a profit of $5,508.04.
Previous Rock ‘n Rail fests weren’t as profitable, according to figures from Smith’s office provided as part of a FOIA request, Rock ‘n Rail losses amounted to more than $21,000 in 2015 but were almost less than half that in 2016. Then the losses grew — $123,538 in 2017; $52,647 in 2018; $41,479 in 2019; $30,070 in 2021; and $26,417 in 2022.
Griffith’s events, over 2015-2022, showed combined losses of $191,535.63 — an average of $23,941 per year in the red. The clerk’s office calculated revenues of $476,645.13 and expenses of $668,000 for those eight years.
Ryfa, who plans and manages the town’s festivals as part of his duties as a self-described “full-time town council president,” has repeatedly stated that the figures the clerk’s office provided for 2015-2022 were miscalculated and “flat-out wrong.” However, he has yet to produce his figures indicating any discrepancy, nor has he offered figures for 2023 events. Ryfa did not dispute an approximately $30,000 loss for 2023 events when presented with the information.
The town is going full ahead with its usual festival schedule in light of the precarious financial condition it experienced during 2023, passing bond issues and using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to keep itself afloat also seeking a tax anticipation loan of up to $3.5 million as it entered 2024. Additionally, an SBOA audit for 2021-22 was highly critical of the town’s financial bookkeeping, among other operational issues, and requested a plan of remediation.
The SBOA in June 2023 found the town had overdrawn its budget by $1,233,358 and was negative in eight of its major budget line items, the Post-Tribune reported.
Commenting on whether Griffith now has its financial house in order, Wilson stated, “At this time, we are unable to determine if any of those audit comments have been fully addressed and corrected by the unit as we will examine those items specifically during our next engagement. In regard to the next scheduled audit for the town, they are currently not on our engagement list for this year, as they just received an audit last year. Typically, unless a unit reaches a federal dollar expenditure threshold they are not audited on an annual basis.”
Jim Masters is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
Griffith releases 2024 festival dates
Central Market: May 17, 24, 31; June 7, 14, 21, 28, 29; July 5, 12, 19; August 2, 23; September 6,13, 21
Park Full of Art: July 20-21
Broad Street Blues & BBQ Fest: August 9-11
Rock ‘n Rail Fest: August 29-31 and September 1
Symphony in the Park: August 3
Boy Scouts Fall Harvest Festival: September 28-29
Oktoberfest: October 4-6