NEWS
New board to oversee NYRA business operations
Posted: Friday, September 12, 2008 9:35 AM
DAVID PATERSON
by Paul Post
A newly organized state Racing Franchise Oversight Board has been named to monitor the business practices of the New York Racing Association, whose permanent 25-year contract is expected to become official on Friday.
NYRA, which filed for bankruptcy on November 2, 2006, is slated to emerge from Chapter 11 protection at the same time.
The new board replaces one whose members mostly were holdovers from former Republican Governor George E. Pataki’s administration.
Governor David Paterson, a Democrat, has made three appointments to the panel: Chairman Laura Anglin, the state’s budget director; Sylvia Hamer, the governor’s deputy secretary for technology operations and gaming; and New York Lottery Director Gordon Medenica.
Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Center) has named his chief counsel, Michael Avella, to the board. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) has yet to announce his selection.
Friday is expected to mark a new beginning for NYRA, whose debts total around $300-million. As part of its new franchise agreement, the state will forgive more than $132-million worth of old loans and interest payments and advance NYRA another $105-million.
In turn, NYRA will relinquish ownership of its racetracks—Saratoga Race Course, Belmont Park, and Aqueduct—to the state.
Presumably, NYRA will use much of the $105-million cash infusion to pay off other outstanding debts. This includes $31-million in back property taxes for the years 2005 and '06 and tens of millions of dollars worth of pension fund obligations.
The oversight board is separate from New York’s racing and gaming regulatory body, the state Racing and Wagering Board, which on Friday is expected to approve a new certificate of incorporation for NYRA. The oversight board deals more with NYRA’s ongoing business operations and financial transactions.
The Racing and Wagering Board has final say about all racing and gaming-related rules and regulations in New York. Spokesman Joseph Mahoney said that Paterson and new board Chairman John Sabini will be keeping a tight grip on NYRA’s reins in the months and years to come.
“For many years NYRA was allowed to do its own thing,” he said. “We will be paying very close attention to the reborn NYRA. We hope that this incarnation of NYRA is not just new, but very much improved.”
NYRA’s new 25-member board of directors has yet to be named. The panel will have 14 members of NYRA’s choosing and 11 political appointees, including representatives of horsemen’s, breeders’, labor groups and Off-Track Betting.
Paul Post is a New York-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent
