More money for Belmont is a losing bet

If your friend kept taking his kids’ lunch money and losing it at the track, you’d have an intervention. What do you do when the friend is the governor of New York, and she wants to waste another $455 million on a long-shot bid to save a failing racetrack?

If you’re a member of the state Legislature, let’s hope you have the guts to stop your friend from throwing away more taxpayer money on yet another losing bet on horse racing.

In this year’s executive budget, Gov. Kathy Hochul is asking taxpayers to guarantee $455 million to finance a new luxury racing facility at Belmont. This comes at a time when the horse racing industry is dying. Since 2000, 41 racetracks have been shuttered across the country. Attendance at Belmont is down 88 percent since 1978. And NYRA has been unable to pay a franchise fee to the state even once over the past 14 years – despite the fact that NYRA and New York harness tracks are the beneficiary of $230 million in annual subsidies from the state.

NYRA had to ask the state for yet another handout because it can’t get financing from private banks. No private bank would go anywhere near a deal that bad, but you don’t have to take my word for it. NYRA CEO David O’Rourke has publicly admitted the “business model is outdated, and we’re unable to secure financing.”

NYRA’s public relations consultants and an expensive ad campaign — seemingly paid for with those missing franchise fees owed to taxpayers — would have you believe that this “financing” is merely a loan and will be paid back. NYRA paying back a loan to the state with money from ongoing state subsidies is sort of like your teenager buying you a birthday present with $20 taken from your wallet. It’s not exactly a model of financial independence.

And even if we pretend this is a loan, there’s simply no precedent in New York history for loaning a half billion dollars to any private business, much less one with the poor business metrics of NYRA.

Not all gambling operations in New York state are losers like horse racing. The lottery, casinos and mobile sports betting generate billions of dollars in taxes every year, while NYRA generates just $10 million in wagering taxes. So why does this one losing industry keep getting bailed out?

When pressed, NYRA supporters point to unsubstantiated economic development and jobs claims — claims that have never been independently verified. In fact, buried deep in agency appropriations documents in the executive budget is a line calling for an “independent racing study” — a striking admission that even the governor’s office doesn’t buy the industry’s numbers.

So the Hochul administration is going to spend $1 million to finally try to determine the economic impact of the horse racing industry – but in true Albany fashion, the study won’t be completed until well after the Legislature votes on the $455 million for Belmont.

As legislators debate the details of the state budget, it’s time they had an intervention with the governor and stopped throwing good money after bad. Some of the wealthiest and most successful business executives in the world run their horses at NYRA’s tracks. If this is a risk worth taking, let them do it. And if private funding won’t back a new Belmont Park, New York state shouldn’t either.

New Yorkers know a losing bet when we see one. It’s time to say no to the Belmont boondoggle.