A fight is brewing between racetrack supporters and opponents in New York. At the center of this disagreement are plans to introduce a bill to eliminate using funding from video lottery terminals to subsidize the horse racing industry.
The legislation, from New York State Assembly member Linda Rosenthal and State Senator Zellnor Myrie, will look to redirect what it says are $230 million in annual subsidies toward funding public schools, agricultural grants, human services and workforce protections, according to the Blood Horse.
The New York Racing Association (NYRA), which operates Belmont Park, Aqueduct Racetrack, and Saratoga Racecourse in New York, opposes the legislation, Pat McKenna, NYRA’s senior director of communications, said in a statement.
“Racing support payments are not subsidies,” McKenna said. “The payments from VLT revenues are made to the thoroughbred industry in part because NYRA transferred land and other intellectual property to the state in 2008 and has acted as the steward of the properties in the years since. The VLT payments are compensation for that transaction rather than subsidies. Rather than a rational public policy disagreement, these groups are only interested in how best to damage horse racing to further their own political agenda.”
New York lawmakers are unlikely to act on legislation until they return for the next session in January. A similar bill that would redistribute revenues in 2020 failed to pass, according to the Albany Times-Union.
