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ALBANY — State legislators have introduced a bill that would shift approximately $230 million in annual funding from slot machines and paid to horse racing tracks and breeders and redistribute it to schools, human services and other causes.
The legislation, sponsored by state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, D-Brooklyn, and Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, D-Manhattan, is also backed by a cadre of animal rights groups and social services non-profits, who said they plan to use advertising and grassroots organizing to draw attention to the issue.
“The state has been propping up this industry for decades and there is no reason for that to continue, especially when we need the money the state has been giving to the industry,” Rosenthal said in an interview.
The supplemental payments to horse racing also have defenders in the Democratic caucus, like state Sen. Joseph Addabo, D-Queens, who said the money helps preserve jobs created by the industry.
The bill would allocate a portion of slot machine revenues to…
More on this New York bill and how it affects horse racing in NY