Horse track welfare

[takeout]

Slots are already the biggest corporate welfare program in Maryland history. But the Maryland Jockey Club wants more
http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bs-bz-hancock-slots-legislation-20110320,0,4552023.column



Comment: Time for that eminent domain thing. Better late than never.

[Kelso]

From the article:
"Slots are already the biggest corporate welfare program in Maryland history. The most public money Maryland ever gave to private companies before was $10 million or so for a steel mill or an auto plant. Slots, on the other hand, could easily funnel scores of millions a year, every year, to the less important racetrack industry."


This paragraph says it all. It's welfare, and it's a waste of Maryland taxpayers' money. The tracks (read Stronach and Penn) and the horsemen take what belongs to the taxpayers ... and they still want more!




From the article:
"It's every CEO's dream: a government slush fund to finance day-to-day business. Which for the Jockey Club, by the way, is not racing horses. The club has made very clear that its business is lobbying for a slots license.


Ten years, at the outside, and there won't be a dime's worth of non-racing money in purses or grandstands. What the states haven't been smart enough to take back, the racinos will have bought their ways out of. It can't happen soon enough.




From the article:
"The Jockey Club's financial statements show that it makes about $100,000 a year selling horse manure to farmers. It seems to think it'll get a better price from the legislature."

:lol:

[takeout]

This really is unbelievable. Why the state continues to put up with these repeated extortion attempts by the owners of the MJC on taxpayer dollars is beyond me. The taxpayers in Maryland should be absolutely livid when they read about stuff like this. I can’t believe PNG & Stronach aren’t dodging tar and feathers as we speak. They should both be drop-kicked so far out of Maryland that they would need a map to find their way back.

The tracks: Seize ‘em, sell ‘em.

Sell them to someone that actually wants to run a track as opposed to being a parasite.

And, as someone already said, PNG is not broke. They didn’t have any trouble buying Rosecroft while trying to bum money from the state at the same time. This whole thing is not only absurd it’s obscene.