Letters

Long Islanders do not support the almost half-billion-dollar “loan” that Governor Kathy Hochul has earmarked for a new Belmont racetrack in her budget. Giving the dying, heavily subsidized racing industry more taxpayer dollars is fiscally irresponsible. And it is state-supported animal abuse.

Look at the economics. Horse-racing is a dying industry; the racetracks are already operating at a loss. Without the almost $250 million in subsidies that taxpayers give to the tracks every year, the racetracks would fail. Over the last four decades, Belmont’s attendance has fallen 88 percent; Aqueduct’s has dropped 94 percent. New York’s revenues from New York Racing Association’s gambling taxes have gone down almost 80 percent.

While state government charges mobile sports betting a 51 percent tax on wagers, horse racing pays a minuscule effective tax rate of 1.3 percent on wagers. It would take NYRA 83 years to pay the state what mobile sports betting pays in just one year. The “loan” of almost $500 million that Governor Hochul wants to make will be repaid largely with the subsidies given to the industry each year.

So, taxpayers pay for the new track and then keep paying to repay the loan. And while the term of the loan is 30 years, there is only 10 years left on NYRA’s state franchise agreement. What happens at the end of 10 years if the franchise is not renewed?

What prudent lender would loan a half billion dollars to a business that might be bankrupt 20 years before the loan was due?

Now for the animal cruelty: Since 2009, more than 1,600 horses have died at racetracks in New York. Horseracing Wrongs, the expert on horse racing industry abuse, has documented the death of 274 horses at Aqueduct and Belmont from 2018 to 2022.

The proposed “New Belmont” track would encompass both Aqueduct and Belmont, meaning, during the 30-year life of the loan, another approximately 1,200 horses will die at the track.

Most people assume that, at the end of their careers, the horses are retired to bucolic farms. Nothing could be further from the truth. As the Albany Times Union reported in March 2022, tens of thousands of retired racing and other horses are sent to slaughter each year, shipped to Mexico and Canada, where they are butchered and sold to restaurants around the world.

Long Islanders need property tax relief, additional funds for education and infrastructure repair, and affordable housing. What we don’t need is more corporate handouts, more dead horses and an industry that breeds gambling addiction.

We are watching closely to see which politicians support the governor’s loan and which politicians support Long Islanders. And we vote.

Bonnie Klapper

Sag Harbor