The Colts are miffed they were dragged into the Pacers’ tiff with the Capital Improvement Board. The CIB may or may not get relief for its $47 million shortfall before lawmakers adjourn Wednesday. And taxpayers are disgusted with everyone.

It’s just another day in paradise.

Or maybe it’s paradise lost because if the CIB can’t get its financial house in order, we’re all in trouble.

“There is so much at stake here,” said Jim Morris, the Pacers’ chief. “Hundreds of millions in tax revenue, thousands of jobs, the reputation of our city and state. There is so much at risk.”

Yet Colts’ owner Jim Irsay is miffed that Gov. Mitch Daniels and Mayor Greg Ballard have asked the Colts for $5 million to plug the gap. Irsay really is peeved that the American Beverage Institute called him out in a full-page newspaper ad last week decrying a proposed boost in the county’s booze tax to help cover the shortfall.

Morris wouldn’t talk about Irsay’s letter, and the Colts owner insisted Monday, “We’re all in this together.” But it looks like the newspaper ad did what the New Madrid Fault hasn’t: produced a damaging rift. For the first time in the city’s remarkable 40-year renaissance, the principal players pout in corners when things get a little tough.

Here’s how bad it has gotten. In the last couple of weeks, Gov. Mitch Daniels has met with the Pacers, Colts, CIB, Ballard and the Chamber of Commerce — separately. An exasperated Daniels wondered why they didn’t put together a plan first and then visit him with it. After all, Daniels already had declared the state would gladly forego millions in sales tax if the city wanted to include Circle Centre Mall in the Professional Sports Development Area.

Meanwhile, Ballard, aware that Irsay doesn’t want to reopen his contract with the CIB, is suggesting the Colts make up funding cut from the arts and Black Expo. That’s better than the millions it would cost Irsay if the Pacers fold because the CIB can’t find $15 million to turn on the lights at Conseco Fieldhouse.

Instead, lawmakers are a day away from adjourning, and no one knows how the CIB will plug its operational shortfall. It’s so bad the state’s liquor lobby is the voice of reason right now. “It’s time for somebody else to pay up,” said Indiana Licensed Beverage Association chief Brad Klopfenstein, noting three recent increases in alcohol taxes. “That said, we do think there needs to be a solution.”

But who will make it happen? Ballard’s ambivalence to Sen. Luke Kenley’s rescue plan led the powerful Noblesville Republican to pull it. The mayor also failed to sell the public or the City-County Council on a plan to raise taxes on hotels, food and rental cars. No one likes his penchant for floating trial balloons in public before telling anyone else.

Things are so bad that Frank Hancock, whose Sport Graphics does a lot of business with the Pacers and the Colts, thinks he’s Henry Kissinger conducting shuttle diplomacy in an attempt to broker an agreement.

“There was a time when powerful Democrats and powerful Republicans could sit down and put things together,” said Hancock, adding that he doesn’t take the city’s success for granted. “Somebody’s got to stop this. Nothing good will come out of it if these groups are fighting with each other.”

It’s time to lock them all in a room and keep them there until they agree. Hancock’s Turn Two suite at Indianapolis Motor Speedway would be a good Camp David, a perfect place to hammer out a plan and figure out how to sell it.

With stakes this high, the city can’t afford to drift aimlessly. This is a solvable problem.