“City backs horse racing, transportation bill” plus 1 more |
| City backs horse racing, transportation bill Posted: 02 Mar 2011 06:53 PM PST CONYERS — City staff made an appearance at the Georgia Capitol Wednesday morning to encourage lawmakers to pass legislation for pari-mutuel betting on horse racing, in turn, establishing a million-dollar industry for the state. City manager Tony Lucas reported to City Council Wednesday evening that he visited lawmakers along with Georgia International Horse Park director Jennifer Bexley.  Bexley spoke before state representatives in the Regulated Industries Committee in support of House Resolution 186. If passed, HR 186 would make pari-mutuel betting on horse racing legal in Georgia and create a Georgia Horse Racing Commission. Lucas said there were no negative comments about pari-mutuel betting and the horse racing industry. An unanimous vote Wednesday morning decided that the bill will move to the Rules Committee, according to Lucas, and the House is expected to vote on it next week. He encouraged the mayor and council to call state representatives and ask lawmakers to support the vote. "Importantly, it's not just about horse betting. It's about the industry itself," Lucas said. "There are many, many jobs - tens of thousands of jobs - that it could create in Georgia and millions of dollars in revenue that could come from this." According to the resolution, revenues would only go toward trauma care services, voluntary pre-K program, and education grants, scholarships, and loans. In other council business, Mayor Randy Mills discussed updates from the Atlanta Regional Roundtable. Mills sits on the board, representing the city. The roundtable was created out of Georgia House Bill 277, also known as the Transportation Investment Act. If passed by voters, the legislation would split the state into 12 regions to work on transportation projects and it will levy a 1-percent sales tax to fund transportation projects within the newly defined special tax districts. The Transportation Investment Act required the 12 districts to have roundtable meetings and talk about those projects. The Atlanta Regional Roundtable met Feb. 17 at the Georgia Tech conference center. Mills said Wednesday night that city councils across the state are ratifying resolutions in support of the transportation bill coming before voters in 2012. Mills said he wanted to have a discussion about the bill put on an upcoming city council agenda. "I know there's a lot of different concerns circulating around the community as far as the percentage of what it's going to be used for," Mills said. He described the discussion as a time to talk about the benefits of the bill. Read the complete story in a future edition of the Rockdale Citizen. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Talks focus on linking lottery game to horse racing Posted: 02 Mar 2011 02:43 PM PST The prospects of a provincial lottery game being tied to horse racing became marginally brighter Wednesday when Bill O'Donnell was due to meet with executives at the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation. O'Donnell, who lives in Acton, is the president of the Central Ontario Standardbred Association, the group that represents all the harness horsepeople who race at Mohawk Racetrack in Campbellville and Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto. "I think it's kind of a listening meeting today," O'Donnell said Wednesday morning. "They were the ones that initiated all of this. Paul Godfrey, he wants everybody's input, which is very, very good, I think. We'll just sit there and listen. I'll take the smart guys with me." Godfrey, the former chief executive officer and president of the Toronto Blue Jays and the former publisher of the Toronto Sun, was appointed chair of the lottery corporation in November of 2009. O'Donnell said he's impressed with the man. "First and foremost, I think he's a businessman... He seems to be on top of things," O'Donnell said. Just getting the meeting alone is an accomplishment for the area's harness horsepeople. Racing has long had a standoffish relationship with the lottery corporation, which runs all of the slot machine parlours at the province's 18 horse racing tracks. For the most part, the lottery corporation runs the slot halls independently from the racetrack operators despite sharing a building. In exchange for space in a preexisting gaming environment, the lottery corporation gives the racing industry a 20 per cent cut of slot revenues, shared equally between track management and horse racing purses. The money's welcome in the racing industry, of course, but for many moons horse racing interests have pushed to establish a national or provincial lottery game similar to the highly successful program they have in Sweden and a burgeoning one in France. O'Donnell thinks Wednesday's meeting could be the first step in building a more productive relationship, but he's careful to say it's very early in the process and the lottery corporation holds all the cards. "It's entirely up to them, but I would just like to sit down in a room with them and just express my views... We're ready to go. We've been working about it for a couple of weeks," O'Donnell said. Any provincial lottery game tied to horse racing would work better if the Ontario Racing Commission can implement its ambitious plan to better coordinate racing in the province. The racing commission is trying to create a more effective hierarchy of racing in Ontario similar to a junior hockey system that builds to the National Hockey League level — in racing's case, the NHL is the product at Mohawk and Woodbine. The racing commission is also trying to better coordinate racing cards across the province on a nightly basis to market the racing as a whole. That would certainly make a lottery game easier to implement. Meanwhile, O'Donnell, a popular Hall of Fame driver in both Canada and the United States, said winter racing at Woodbine has been strong. Paying a guaranteed starter fee of $300 to the owners of every horse that does not finish in the money—the top five positions—has helped, O'Donnell said. "One guy said he got a cheque for $2,100 for a couple of weeks. He raced seven horses that didn't get money and it's a help," O'Donnell said. "The fear was people would just enter for the $300, but I don't think so. If the horse is not competitive, it's going to cost you $250 to get $300." Dave Briggs is the editor of The Canadian Sportsman, the oldest harness racing magazine in North America. He can be reached by email at dbriggs@canadiansportsman.ca This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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