Florida committee advances decoupling bill to the House floor

As expected, the controversial bill that would allow Gulfstream Park to decouple its racing and slot-machine licenses passed in the Florida House commerce committee Monday. But it was not without a cascade of objections to the proposal.

After 90 minutes of discussion and debate, the Republican-led committee voted 15-7 to favorably report the bill to the full House floor. The confirmed roll call provided two days after the vote corrected the initial count of 15-8 that Horse Racing Nation counted while monitoring the hearing via video stream. Republicans voted 15-2 in favor of decoupling and Democrats 5-0 against it. Four members were absent, and their votes were listed formally as missing.

Casse: Decoupling threatens thousands of jobs in racing.

Republican representative Adam Anderson of Pinellas County, the sponsor of House bill 105, sold members on the proposal that has been revised and branded a compromise after discussions with racing interests in the nearly six weeks since a subcommittee approved the stripped-down, original version.

“It requires tracks to provide a three-year notice to the Thoroughbred industry if they elect to stop racing,” Anderson said. “It also mandates that it cannot be given until July 1, 2027, guaranteeing racing into the future and guaranteeing a minimum of five years of visibility in the Thoroughbred industry.”

Opponents countered that while this might buy time, it still offers The Stronach Group the chance to put an expiration date on racing at Gulfstream Park while getting approval to grow its slot-machine business separately.

“We’re down to one track (in South Florida) because of the actions of a company now known as 1/ST Racing,” said Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse, one of the 15 people who spoke against the bill when public comment was invited. He went on to say, “Gulfstream deliberately put all their eggs in one basket, and now are prepared to leave South Florida racing like a post-fall Humpty Dumpty.”

Even though she was not mentioned by name, Belinda Stronach, the head of 1/ST and a former member of Canada parliament, was referenced frequently by opponents.

“I think it’s just not right to send a $60 million pipeline to Canada and leave the horses behind,” said Mike Dini, president of the Tampa Bay Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association.

Anderson confirmed he had spoken in recent weeks to stakeholders representing breeders, owners and trainers. Like the speakers at Monday’s hearing, they raised to him the specter of job and revenue losses.

“I asked them all the same thing,” Anderson said. “I said give me a plan. Give me a proposal. Tell me what you need changed, how you view the industry from your part. We didn’t get that. Instead, what happened was each of those different associations hired a team of lobbyists just to simply fight the bill. So I’ll ask them why are they spending that money on lobbyists when they should be reinvesting that money into the folks that they are supposed to be representing?”

The revised proposal also would allow track operators at Gulfstream Park and Tampa Bay Downs to transfer their racing license to someone else, and it would give the Florida Gaming Control Commission the responsibility to monitor $14 million in annual revenue to owners and breeders.

The head of the gaming commission said that would be a burden to monitor.

“The idea that government as part of this bill would be injected into the purses and breeders award, that is remarkable, because it has not been done before as far as the commission is aware,” said Ross Marshman, acting executive director of the FGCC. Later he said, “The commission as it currently stands would be hard-pressed to use its existing full-time employees to cover the additional lift that this bill includes.”

Saying he was providing information Monday without taking a side on the proposal, Marshman provided opponents some fuel.

“The commission believes with the information it has that there would be, if racing were to cease, a decrease in Florida jobs,” Marshman said.

Belmont Stakes-winning trainer and Hollywood, Fla., native Jena Antonucci echoed the critical refrain that House bill 105 was written so 1/ST would benefit at the expense of the people who make the state’s racing industry go. She compared it with her being the first woman to train the winner of a Triple Crown race.

“Even more mind-blowing is the idea that a corporate interest desires to dismantle our beloved Florida industry,” Antonucci said, “a robust industry with 30,000-plus jobs. This is not an inflated number.”

Anderson said early in the discussion that he heard directly from Antonucci and was impressed with what she had to say.

“That is exactly the type of individual that we want to incentivize to come into the state and to work in our Thoroughbred community,” he said, saying his bill “adds a trifecta of support” to the racing industry.

No doubt confident the committee would approve the bill, 1/ST president of racing and business development Stephen Screnci waived his opportunity to speak in support of the bill.

A Senate version of the bill, which also would decouple the license and card-room licenses at Tampa Bay Downs, has been assigned to three committees but has yet to have a hearing scheduled. Damon Thayer, the former Kentucky state senator who is a senior advisor to the Thoroughbred Racing Initiative, predicted last week that decoupling would pass in the Florida House but face bigger hurdles in the Senate.

The Florida legislative session is scheduled to end May 2.