Hey, everybody, remember when Franklin County refused to let residents vote on whether to stop payments on the Columbus Blue Jackets‘ arena because if the county voted to pay for things and then didn’t that would make them look terrible? Turns out the county has stopped making payments after all, for a simpler reason — they don’t have any money! It’s irony!

The city-county authority financed the $52 million deal through loans from Nationwide and the State of Ohio in March 2012. To make the payments, the city and county pledged to use a portion of casino tax revenue. But casino revenue is far below projections. And Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority Executive Director Bill Jennison said no payments have been made to pay off either loan. More than $3 million remains unpaid.

County officials say that if casino taxes don’t start rolling in, they’re not going to fill in with general revenues, but rather will just make bondholders sit and wait for their cash. Wait how long?

[Activist Jonathan] Beard ran his own numbers and expects the city-county authority to be paying on the loan far beyond 2039 based on current casino-tax revenues returns. “We showed a $1.8 billion deficit at the end of 100 years when we’d still be paying on the [arena]. So it’s this huge albatross,” Beard said.

Yep, that’s a while. I’m guessing at some point somebody is going to suggest selling a few hospitals to save the county’s bond rating in the meantime.