New York Horsemen Take Another Hit From Cuomo

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Bernies Blog

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is a creep who has always done whatever possible to sabotage the state's racing and breeding interests. Four years ago he pretty much took over control of who would be appointed to the NYRA board of directors.

Cuomo's latest push, according to Tom Precious in the Blood-Horse, is a bill that would "give him sizable influence over a new NYRA board and would cap the annual revenue NYRA receives from video lottery terminals at Aqueduct Racetrack." The last part is something the slots non-believers have always brought up when discussing the issue, not only for New York but for every state that has racinos propping up purse money.

It has always been my opinion that the advent of racinos has been the best thing that happened to racing in decades, as long as governors and legislators keep their greedy paws out of the mix. That hasn't always proved to be possible in many cases.

If Cuomo wants to take away money from NYRA it's an admission that he's incompetent. When the legislation was passed years ago, it was determined that 44% of the net slots revenue would go to education. The exact wording is "Education contribution. The portion of net win allocated to the State Education Fund for direct aid to education." It could not possibly be any clearer than that."

So, let's take a look at the figures. For the fiscal year that ended the last week of March, the "net win" for the Big A casino was $856,634,479. A quick calculator check shows that "education" received some $377 million off the top. It's been about five years since New York's educators have benefitted from the racino boom, and there's about $1.5 billion involved. If the Empire State hasn't been able to straighten out its problems with teachers/students/classrooms/buildings with $1.5 billion, stealing more money from NYRA isn't going to make a difference. Unless Cuomo has other ideas for the money.

According to the story, NYRA would lose some $14-$16 million in revenue if Cuomo's latest proposal is allowed to stand. New York has positioned itself head and shoulders above the rest of the country from the standpoint of purses, breeders and stallion awards. This is hardly the time to head in the opposite direction.

Fortunately, there are a bunch of level-headed legislators who are bumping heads with the guv. Let's hope they hit his head hard enough to make a dent.