A couple of harness racing bills legislators are considering

Two additional bills on behalf of Maine harness racing have been presented for action by the current session of the 117th Legislature.

LD 637, An Act to Change the Commissions Payable to the State from Off-track Betting, was presented by Sen. July Paradis, D-Frenchville. The bill would increase the market (protected) area around an OTB from 35 miles back to 50 miles. Any proposed OTB would be required to obtain approval from any existing OTB within a market area.

LD 829, An Act to Strengthen Maine’s Harness Racing Industry, has been presented by Rep. Gary Reed, R-Falmouth. Proponents believe it will strengthen live racing in Maine by providing a more equitable distribution of purses.

The Paradis bill also requests a reduction in the amount payable by an OTB to the state and other state-sponsored programs for any week in which the OTB handles less than $100,000. In any week the OTB handles under $50,000, the OTB would pay the state only 20 percent of its commission on the parimutuel handle.

For any week the OTB did not reach $100,000, the OTB would pay 40 percent of its commission. The commission is not the total parimutuel handle, just the percentage of the handle the OTBs are allowed by law to keep. It varies from wager to wager but is approximately 4 percent of the total in-state wagering and 5 percent of out-of-state simulcasts.

Under the Paradis proposal, any amounts not required to be paid to the Maine State Harness Racing Commission would be added to the amount retained by the OTB. If successful, LD 637 would reduce amounts paid to the Sire Stakes Fund, Agricultural Stipend Fund, General Fund, the Harness Racing Promotional Fund and purse supplements.

The bill would also grant a credit toward required payments to parlors that lost money during 1994.

The essence of the bill is to assist fledgling OTBs that are lagging behind projected revenues. It would save out-of-pocket money for any OTB operator who is supplementing his finances. A public hearing has been scheduled at 1 p.m. Thursday, March 30, in Room 113, State Office Building in Augusta.

The idea is commendable, but it certainly is not how free enterprise works.

The Reed bill would change the laws governing harness racing, including amending the definitions of a commercial track and a commercial meet; change the amount payable to the Stipend Fund; and change criteria for distributing amounts to supplement purses.

The need for changing the current legislation has been created by the new electronic racing medium of simulcasting. Citing a total parimutuel handle of $59.5 million in 1994, more than 80 percent over the previous year because of simulcasting, the bill’s supporters say Maine harness racing is now two-thirds the size of Maine’s lobstering industry.

Even with this huge growth in such a short time, the majority of benefits have not trickled down to where Maine horse people are sharing on an equal basis the distributuion of three stipend pools and a purse supplement pool designed in LD 829 to support live racing.

Before simulcasting, purse supplements were allocated to live race meets, both extended meet and commercial meet stipends, based on days raced. If you were not racing, you did not incur any purse expense or supplements. Therefore, no money for days not raced. Pretty straightforward and simple.

Now, with simulcasting, a track operator will be credited with a race day even though no live racing is taking place on that track. All the track has to do is simulcast to receive supplements from the state for that day. A track that has been alloted 120 live race days can, in fact, receive supplemental funds for 365 days each year if the track runs simulcasts every day.

That year-round simulcast system takes funds away from those tracks who are conducting live racing. According to the bill’s sponsors, LD 829 would correct the stipend disparities and move the distribution of purse supplemental funds back to live racing and only include live racing handles in the calculations for distribution of the stipend fund.

Additionally, an OTB betting pool that in 1994 reached $686,675 has been restricted to commercial track licensees. LD 829 would open up that pool, not only to compensate Scarborough Downs and Bangor Raceway for putting up their simulcast signals, but to make funds available to any “live Maine racing licensee who chooses to participate in broadcasting their races.”

LD 829 also grants funds to Maine’s agricultural fairs for the first $400,000 generated through racing, a modest 19 percent increase in a pool that increased by 71 percent in 1994, and defines a commercial racetrack that will allow more diverse racing opportunities for horsemen.

A hearing has not been scheduled for this bill that is before the Legislature’s Legal Affairs Committee.