WAKING UP TO RACINO

A recent alliterative observation about racino was memorable but probably off by one level of government. Of the November vote on the slot machines, Stan Bergstein, vice president of the Harness Tracks of America, identified developer Shawn Scott as “the man who sold the racino version of the Brooklyn Bridge to the trusting burghers of Bangor.” More likely, however, is that he is the man who sold the racino version of the Manhattan metro to the multitudes of Maine.

The city negotiated an agreement within the norm of the gaming industry, according to Christiansen Capital Advisors, a New Gloucester company that is expert in the industry. Along with a $30 million redevelopment of Bass Park, Bangor would receive at least $2 million annually through the property lease, taxes and a portion of the slot-machine proceeds. The one caution Christiansen Capital offered was that the common element among gambling expansions across the country was higher revenue shares than what had been observed in the past.

The state, however, largely stayed away from negotiations on what voters approved and Maine predictably did less well because of it. The numbers from the Office of Fiscal and Program Review are still under review, but it is fairly clear it will cost the state several million dollars a year to oversee the new gambling, with the General Fund losing an additional $10 million or $20 million a year from diminished lottery sales and paramutuel revenues.

Some specific budgets do better:

Fund for a Healthy Maine receives money from track revenues, as does FAME and the community-college system. But it is not at all a stretch to conclude state government would have been better off had it had offered to pay Bangor several million dollars a year to keep racino out, giving the city a good start on funding a new civic center and auditorium. A bit late for that now, of course.

The Baldacci administration likes the results of the racino initiative less and less as it picks through the initiative’s language. What is the floor, the bottom percentage, for the amount paid back to slot machine bettors? There’s none listed. Why is the compensated administrative cost so much lower than the predicted actual cost? And what went on to create the extensive pre-election agreement among developers, horse track owners, OTB parlors, horsemen and owners?

The Harness Racing Commission, which meets Dec. 15, will decide whether proposed racino owners are of good moral character and entitled to a license to operate. But the state has some practical decisions to make. It may try to amend the racino bill to clarify the regulatory and fiscal responsibilities that were missed in the first version of the bill, or it may consider repealing the bill with the public ratification at the next election.

The state is very unlikely to let the law stand in its current form and it should not, though repealing it is an extreme step. Certainly, it would have been more helpful if the state had treated the proposal from Bangor more seriously before the vote.