NIFA- commissioned report says Nassau could cut $87M in
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Claude Solnik
Long Island Business News
2150 Smithtown Ave.
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348
Home > LI Confidential > Stop scratching on holidays
Claude Solnik
Long Island Business News
2150 Smithtown Ave.
Ronkonkoma, NY 11779-7348
Home > LI Confidential > Stop scratching on holidays
Stop scratching on holidays
Published: June 1, 2012
Off Track Betting in New York State has been racing into a crisis called shrinking revenue. Some people have spitballed a solution: Don’t close on holidays.
New York State Racing Law bars racing on Christmas, Easter and Palm Sunday, and the state has ruled OTBs can’t handle action on those days, even though they could easily broadcast races from out of state.
“You should be able to bet whenever you want,” said Jackson Leeds, a Nassau OTB employee who makes an occasional bet. He added some irrefutable logic: “How is the business going to make money if you’re not open to take people’s bets?”
Elias Tsekerides, president of the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, said OTB is open on Greek Orthodox Easter and Palm Sunday.
“I don’t want discrimination,” Tsekerides said. “They close for the Catholics, but open for the Greek Orthodox? It’s either open for all or not open.”
OTB officials have said they lose millions by closing on Palm Sunday alone, with tracks such as Gulfstream, Santa Anita, Turf Paradise and Hawthorne running.
One option: OTBs could just stay open and face the consequences. New York City OTB did just that back in 2003. The handle was about $1.5 million – and OTB was fined $5,000.
Easy money.
expenses
The state board in control of Nassau’s finances has commissioned a report suggesting the county could cut $87 million in annual expenses through controversial measures such as privatizing ambulance services, defunding school crossing guards and offloading some parks maintenance to towns.
Nassau Interim Finance Authority members on Tuesday approved a resolution to release the report from its consultant, Great Neck-based Capital Markets Advisors, or CMA. The firm was hired in March, when NIFA was projecting that Nassau could end 2017 with a $106 million deficit.
That projection now stands at $54 million, but NIFA is still asking County Executive Edward Mangano to come up with ways that he could reduce spending by 7 percent, or $100 million, from his 2018 budget.
Mangano, a Republican who is not seeking re-election, will submit the proposal to county legislators on Sept. 15. But with all 19 legislative seats up for election in November, it’s unlikely a tax hike to raise revenues would be embraced.
Therefore, the CMA report is a “good starting point” for cost-cutting talks, said NIFA chairman Adam Barsky, even if elements are unpopular with lawmakers and unions.
“Any cut always has a constituency that isn’t going to be happy about it,” Barsky said. “But in an environment where people are not willing to tolerate an increase in taxes, you have to start looking to cut things that are not essential, or shift them to areas that can carry more of the burden.”
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