Photo finish for NYS & NYRA

Last-minute deal leaves shady-shadsters in charge of racing

It was business as usual in Albany on Wednesday as the state Legislature approved a deal assigning oversight of New York’s three major horse-racing tracks to the New York Racing Association (NYRA) for the next 25 years.

Hearkening back to days of old and practices supposedly cast aside at day one of Eliot Spitzer’s reign as Governor, the Leg approved the deal cemented only hours earlier behind closed doors by Leg leaders and Spitz.  Promises, promises Eliot . . .

This is the same NYRA which was the subject of an ‘07 audit by NYS Comptroller Tom DiNapoli.  The audit found that NYRA had been ripping-off taxpayers since at least 2000:

… (NYRA) underpaid franchise fees owed to the state in 2004 and 2005 by a combined total of $10.9 million. Comptroller audits have found that NYRA failed to pay the state nearly $54 million in franchise fees from 2000 to 2005.

NYRA was also found to be nearly $400 million in debt to creditors including the state.

Not to worry, however, taxpayer pennies make everything better for those appointees who sit on the NYRA board with their six-figure state-provided income:

The measure will provide NYRA with $105 million to help it get out of bankruptcy and relieve it of about $120 million in unpaid state loans

To sum up, if you go to one of NYRA’s tracks, gamble and lose then you are S.O.L. as my father used to say.  NYRA gambled and lost on hundreds of millions of dollars in state loans and had their miscalculations and debt simply waved away even as legislators were aware of dubious repayment practices on the part of the organization.

The only thing that would make less sense would be if we gave these same legislators a pay raise for signing off on this travesty.  Oh wait . . .