NYRA's Choice

Without taxpayer subsidies, RACING can't survive and isn't surviving.

Shouldn't that be the question we're asking?

When the grossly flawed legislation was passed in Massachusetts, it contained generous subsidies for the RACING INDUSTRY - an industry that has lost attendance, lost public interest.

What other industry are taxpayers subsidizing to this extent?

Editorial: NYRA's choice

THE ISSUE:

The state comptroller fears that the people who run New York's racetracks will squander the take from video slot machines.

THE STAKES:

That money might be racing's last, best hope.

Why, it's the New York Racing Association, back in the news and on the receiving end of a stern warning from the state comptroller's office. The best way for all those who care about horse racing to sort out this latest critical report is to think of NYRA as one more bettor at the racetrack.

Make that one more somewhat overextended horse player, albeit one who has just come into some money. If nothing changes, that windfall could be little more than additional money to lose.

NYRA has more money than it's had in a long time, thanks to its share — some $48 million a year — of the take from the video slot machines at Aqueduct Race Track.

That's good, of course, for an outfit that was in bankruptcy just four years ago and still is losing money even as it has cut its costs.

That's good, we mean, as long as NYRA understands what's behind the admonishing words of Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. He warns not to squander this money.

That might sound painfully obvious, especially in an economy like this one. Who can be against thrift?

NYRA can. It sure showed that in the bad old days, when its prior management escaped prosecution for tax fraud only after promising to clean up NYRA's act.

Even now, a very new and different NYRA has been able to make its case for state subsidies in a more promising context — that its share of the windfall from the Aqueduct racino offers a way out of hard fiscal times for New York horse racing.

The NYRA management might bristle at Mr. DiNapoli's warning, yet he has no choice but to make it.

"NYRA stands to squander significant revenue from the recently opened VLT franchise at Aqueduct," he says.

"NYRA still has not conducted a top-to-bottom review of its financial operations and taken necessary steps to curb costs, particularly for staffing and consulting contracts," he continues.

To that, NYRA says its house is in considerably better order than it gets credit for. Its president, Charles Hayward, predicts a profit of about $19 million this year, a far cry from the $19 million Mr. DiNapoli forecasts it will lose on racing operations.

How nice it would be to see NYRA turn out to be right — proving all the while that it took the comptroller's admonition to heart.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/Editorial-NYRA-s-choice-2789375.php#ixzz1krAgJJe6