another bigot who does not understand that when tracks are running across the us that bettors want to bet nassau otb must be open
ny pml sec 109 is unconstitutionsl, vague and indefinie, and or does not apply to nassau otb
buy the dude something to eat at the wandering dago food truck and read him ny const art 1 sec 3
if uranisns chsnt death to palestine mark can chant death to ny pml sec 109?
Molinaro’s long-needed reforms to
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.
clean up Albany
Thursday’s guilty verdicts in the Buffalo Billion trialput the issue of corruption front and center in the race for governor. Andrew Cuomo’s already shown his position by reneging on his promises of reform. Happily, his Republican opponent, Marc Molinaro, last week released a comprehensive plan to clean up state government.
Lawmakers will squawk at Molinaro’s ideas, but that’s only more proof of the very filth in Albany he’s highlighting.
In his 23-page plan to clean up the political sleaze that has festered under Cuomo’s reign, the GOP hopeful cites New York’s repeated ranking as one of America’s most corrupt states.
The last three governors, five Senate majority leaders and an Assembly speaker, he notes, were all embroiled in or connected to scandal. By year’s end, four top officials (Shelly Silver, Dean Skelos, Cuomo aide Joe Percoco and economic-development czar Alain Kaloyeros) will have faced trial — all of them convicted, though there’s no verdict yet in Skelos’ retrial.
Molinaro decries the $8.6 billion spent on “economic development” that fuels corruption but fails to boost the economy. He blasts the “influence of special interests,” the “siren call of political careerism” and the lack of competitive elections here, where incumbents win nine out of 10 races.
And he shines a well-needed spotlight on Albany’s general lack of transparency, accountability and independent oversight.
Some of his ideas have been around a while; we’ve backed some and opposed others.
Some are no-brainers: A database of economic-development deals, listing firms’ tax breaks and the jobs they promise, would help stem corruption by making the deals more publicly visible. The Senate passed that this year; the Assembly, under pressure from Cuomo, refused.
Another would create an independent auditor in the comptroller’s office to review state contracts. The Assembly also killed a bill to do basically that.
Molinaro’s other ideas — term limits for state officials, an independent redisticting panel, a ban on political contributions from those seeking government contracts and more — are also on-target.
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