By Randy Beard, Evansville Courier & Press
Ron Geary isn't certain what his next move will be, but without a more lucrative concession from the Kentucky Legislature, he reiterated on Tuesday that this would be the last summer of horse racing at Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky.
"I really have not done any thinking about what to do next," said Geary. "I've been going night and day on lobbying efforts for the slots bills. I spent more time in Frankfort (Ky.) than I ever thought I would, and we almost got it done. We came close, but that only counts in horseshoes, right?"
On Monday, a proposal to legalize video lottery terminals at Kentucky horse tracks was rejected by a 10-5 vote in the Senate Appropriations and Revenue Committee.
Geary is convinced that if the bill had passed out of committee it would have had enough support in the full Senate.
The legislative bailout for Kentucky's horse-racing industry already had the endorsement of Gov. Steve Beshear and was narrowly approved by a 52-45 vote in the House of Representatives on Friday, where it needed 51 votes to pass.
But in the Senate, Geary said it met with resistance because Senate President David Williams is "adamantly opposed to gaming" and he had enough support in the "A&R Committee to vote it down."
Geary said Williams' legislative amendment to a finance bill wouldn't generate enough revenue for track purses, and it also would prove "detrimental to the state lottery."
The alternative bill from Williams proposes to place a 10 percent surcharge on all lottery ticket sales and imposed a 1.5 percent fee on out-of-state simulcast wagering on races at Kentucky tracks.
"We will have the richest purses in America with this supplement, without expanded gaming, without slot machines, without all the associated social consequences that are there," Williams said at a news conference last week.
But Geary disputes Williams' projections, saying the tax on simulcast wagering would cut into Ellis Park's share of that revenue and that the lottery surcharge would generate less than $1 million for the Henderson track's purses. Geary said video slot terminals would generate $12 million to $15 million for the track.
"If you analyze (William's) plan, it doesn't work for us at all," said Geary.
As for the simulcast tax, Geary said 35 percent of Ellis' total handle from Advance Wagering Deposits comes from California tracks, and the rate Ellis and other out-of-state tracks are paid is capped at 3.5 percent.
"We can't get any more from California and the other states that take our signal, the market sets the rate at 3 (percent) and 3.5 percent. So suddenly we would have to say, we are going to be charging 4.5 percent to 5 percent, and they would say, 'Good luck. We are going to take the signal from these other tracks now.'"
As for Williams' claim that his proposal would generate $80 million to $85 million for purses throughout the state, Geary said, "Our guys studied it and thought it would bring in about $15 (million) to $20 million at most for all of the tracks in the state, and that's not going to help us."
Because Geary had been told by enough horsemen that they were going to base their operations at other tracks and only ship in to race at Ellis, he cut the number of racing dates from 48 to 23. As a result, Ellis Park will race primarily on Saturdays and Sundays between July 11 and Labor Day, Sept. 7. The exception will be two weeks in late July when the track will offer Thursday through Sunday racing.
"We need to have (the slots) to survive, and they basically turned their backs on us," said Geary.
Geary said he can't afford to wait for a better fate next year and said the other option to get the measure passed in this emergency session would be to have 20 of the 38 senators sign a "discharge petition."
"I don't think there's much of a shot," he said.
Without another source of revenue to keep Ellis Park competitive with nearby tracks, Geary said he would shut down the 88-year-old facility Sept. 8.