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Michigan horse tracks may get scratched

Friday, October 23, 2009

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Cathy Shafran
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SWARTZ CREEK (WJRT) -- (10/23/09) -- The future of the Sports Creek horse racing track and all the horse racing tracks in the state are on the line today.

It looks like their existence could come down to the home stretch in this month's budget battles in Lansing.

There are many elements to this issue being played out in Lansing, but the bottom line is that Governor Jennifer Granholm, in an executive order last week, eliminated funding for the state employees who work as vets, stewards and judges at horse races.

These people are the regulatory workers in live racing.

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Without regulators, there can be no live racing in the state.

That same executive order gives a November 5 date that the state regulators would be laid off.

"Then there wouldn't be any live horse racing in the state. It's questionable whether the state would still allow the simulcasting," Sports Creek Race Track General Manager Chris Locking said.

At the Swartz Creek-based race tack, crunch time would come November 27 when the two-month live racing season begins in Genesee County. But the governor's order actually puts a layoff day for state regulators on November 5.

So the first track to be affected would be in Northville, and then the four other horse tracks across the state would fall in line.

They're not in a position where they can afford to have thousands more on the unemployment rolls.

It's a move the horseman's association says makes no sense because it would end income to the state and eliminate an entire state industry.

"The state's going to loose those $6 or $7 million and thousands of people unemployed who are related to this industry," Locking pointed out.

What has the Horseman's Association in Michigan betting that closure can be averted was an out clause the governor made while signing the line-item veto. While she eliminated the regulators who were paid out of something called "state services fees," she did open the door for those same regulator jobs to be saved if the $2 million-plus could be paid from an agricultural equine fund, which are taxes raised by the racing industry.

"Two-and-a-half [million dollars] in horse racing can cover that and a good number of the other projects horse racing supports. So it can easily be self-sufficient from that avenue," Locking said.

There currently is a supplemental bill in the Legislature seeking to restore the regulators through that agriculture equine fund.

It's uncertain if it will be approved before November 5.