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Originally Posted by rastajenk
I'm just taking a guess here, but this smells like the state government is unwilling to offend one of its core constituents (public union workers) by asking for cutbacks, so they are herding the horsemen into a corner demanding help for their own irresponsibility. I know that Penn has big casino-bloated purses that could probably be skimmed to help the state out, but I don't blame the horsemen if they think it's not their responsibility to help the state meet its employee obligations. A couple years ago I followed a link from here, or Paulick Report maybe, to a Penn racing commission financial report, and I was amazed at all the full-time union jobs that are part-time gigs in many other jurisdictions. Those don't come cheap. I could be wrong, but I don't think this is automatically about greedy owners and cheating trainers and the rest of the usual Penn circus. I think it's more about how the government spends other people's money.
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I think you're basically right. The tracks fought for years to get slots, and when they finally gave them the right to gamble the state of PA underestimated how much cash would roll in from them. They regret they didn't take a bigger piece of the pie, and now they're trying to squeeze the tracks to balance their own bloated budgets. For politicians, par for the course.
