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Committee backs study of host-community compensation for historic horse racing, urges clearer rules for charity-day distribution
Summary
The Ways and Means committee recommended HB660 for future legislation (18–0), after detailed discussion about host-community costs from historic horse racing, existing operator allocation of charity days, and whether the state should define mitigation or redirect portions of gaming revenue to affected towns.
Representative Ulm opened discussion on HB660, a bill proposing that historic horse-racing facilities compensate host communities with a percentage of revenue generated by those activities. Lawmakers said host communities bear traffic and policing costs and that some mitigation for those local impacts is appropriate, but many urged the bill be narrowed and rewritten to define the problems and reasonable accommodations.
Charlie McIntyre, the lottery director, explained how charitable-gaming operators currently allocate up to 10 "charity days" to towns or nonprofits and cautioned that changing the distribution could bump other deserving organizations: "It's up to 10 days. They have to apply...a number of these rooms, particularly the larger rooms, have a waiting list as well. And so if you bump the line...you're bumping a charity or not for profit out." Members used that operational detail to argue for commission input before statutory change.
Representative Bolton and others suggested options including guaranteeing some number of days to a host municipality or directing a portion of state gaming receipts to the impacted host and neighboring communities. Representative Ulm said the bill in its current form was too broad and recommended a rewrite that focused on narrowly defined impacts and reasonable mitigation approaches.
In executive session Representative Ulm moved that the committee recommend HB660 for future legislation, subject to the discussion and comments from the charitable-gaming commission. The motion carried unanimously; the clerk recorded an 18 to 0 vote in favor of recommending the bill.
Next steps: The committee asked that commission findings be incorporated into the interim-study report and assigned report authorship in the session’s wrap-up. The recommendation is advisory: any statutory change will require future drafting and enactment on the House floor.
