Budgeting is About Priorities
Remember a month ago when the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission suggested they needed a 33% budget increase to more than double their staff?
The cost of the additional staff would be about $1 million a year. The commission's budget is now about $3 million a year. Underwood did not make any recommendations about the source of the money.
Now they want to double their budget and are proposing the increase come out of the General Fund.
A task force on the future of horse racing wants to recapture betting taxes to beef up regulation of the sport.
More than $13 million is collected annually on parimutuel wagering, but only about $424,000 goes into the yearly budget of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. Kentucky spends far less on regulation per racing day than other major racing states do. Most of the tax money is dedicated to purses, but about $4.8 million goes into the state General Fund.
So, the Commission gets 3.2% of betting taxes outright. Those taxes commit $8.2 million back to the industry as racing purses. Those taxes commit another $4.8 million to the General Fund, some amount of which returns in some way to make the Commission's $3 million annual budget.
Earlier, the Commission only wanted an additional $1 million to double the staff. Now, they apparently want more than that:
The additional money would more than double the racing commission's current $3.1 million budget.
Which, although it's more than they seem to provide the General Fund, some academic says it isn't much:
Robert Lawrence, former director of the University of Louisville's equine industry program, said the tax money amounts to less than 1 percent of the $18.8 billion two-year state budget.
And some guy who bets more annually than the Commission spends in three years says it's good:
Mike Maloney, a Lexington handicapper who said he bets about $10 million a year, said improved integrity could increase handle on Kentucky racing.
Any sport needs refs, but I don't expect the suggestion that the state isn't spending enough of our budget to generate betting will carry very far.
