Central Indiana fairgrounds project on hold without new tax

GREENFIELD, Ind. (AP) - Leaders of a central Indiana county are reconsidering how to pay for a possible $30 million fairgrounds project without money from a proposed county restaurant tax.

Hancock County Commissioner Tom Stevens tells the (Greenfield) Daily Reporter (http://bit.ly/1T6tnOG ) he worries the project will be on hold for at least a year after state legislators didn't act on the county's request for a 1 percent food-and-beverage tax. That tax was estimated to raise more than $900,000 a year.

The fairgrounds project is proposed for about 200 acres of county-owned farmland along U.S. 40 just east of Greenfield. The nonprofit Hancock County Exposition Complex Corp. would lease the land and build a multipurpose exposition center, a show arena and animal barns.

The proposed project would be double the size of the current fairgrounds.

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Information from: (Greenfield) Daily Reporter, http://www.greenfieldreporter.com