It would appear NYRA doesn't want anybody to know how it's blowing through the taxpayer handouts.

To help NYRA out of bankruptcy in 2008, the state erased $200 million in debts and tax liens and gave NYRA $105 million to pay off creditors and cover operating expenses.

(State Comptroller) DiNapoli says he was forced to seek subpoenas because NYRA "has been trying to hide its books from my auditors" who are well aware of the association's scandalous past.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/200 ... z0azlPE5PF

Another witch hunt by Albany grifters. Good for "headlines".

Exactly, WHAT did Spitzer prove with his persecution of NYRA?
Exactly NOTHING....except to pay Getnick and Getnick millions to "oversee bankruptcy".
Same thing here. NYRA operates as a "mother-may-I situation with the corrupt politicos in Albany.

Why doesn't DiNapoli "investigate NY-OTB? They lose money on billions....and have NO EXPENSES except salaries and rent. DiNapoli stays away from NYC...too much political power and clout to tangle with NY-OTB. Another sham to garner headlines after that felon Bruno was convicted.

It is clueless like YOU that love to bash NYRA. Believe everything you read. DiNapoli wants the headlines Spitzer had so he can pretend to be effective...persecuting a quasi-state organization for his own political career advancement.

I didn't bash NYRA. I simply posted some news content befitting the forum of "General Racing Discussion". The quotes are from the article. My remark about "taxpayer handouts" is gospel truth.

This morning while I was fixing my pancake & sausage breakfast, State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli was interviewed by John Gambling on radio WOR710 in New York. It caught my attention so I listened closely. DiNapoli said that NYRA would not voluntarily show the state how it was disbursing the taxpayers' money and that he was going to slam them with subpoenas to account for the handouts. He also discussed the bankrupt state-run horror that is still known as New York City OTB. I heard the story "live from the horse's mouth" so to speak.

That fraud DiNapoli would NEVER go after the real crooks at NY-OTB. Why hasn't he done anything? Too powerful connections that would ruin his political aspirations.

NYRA is an easy target to persecute. Gets headllines under the pretension that NYRA is part of an "evil empire".
If DiNapoli is so concerned about "taxpayers" money, why doesn't he investigate Medicaid/Medicare fraud In NYS? Fraud to the tune of BILLONS in taxpayer money that is an ongoing fraud? Easier to persecute NYRA, All BS.

All political BS to gain headlines for this fraud DiNapoli...only goal is the next election.

NYRA operates without a single penny of taxpayer subsidy. The revenue NYRA received as a result of the franchise renewal in 2008 was consideration paid to NYRA by the State in exchange for over one billion dollars worth of real estate. The franchise renewal was not a "bailout" of NYRA. Moreover, the State agreed in the Franchise Agreement that NYRA would need additional revenue if VLTs failed to be operational by April of 2009. NYRA's current financial situation is not a surprise to anyone in state government who is familiar with the NYRA franchise agreements.

As the holder of the State thoroughbred racing franchise, NYRA is one of the most pervasively regulated private companies operating in New York State . As a not-for-profit, NYRA is overseen by the State Attorney General. As a racing association, NYRA is overseen by the State Racing and Wagering Board. As a State franchisee, NYRA is overseen by the State Franchise Oversight Board. As a generator of tens of millions of dollars in pari-mutuel taxes for the State, NYRA is overseen by the State Department of Taxation and Finance. Both the Racing and Wagering Board and the Department of Taxation and Finance maintain fully staffed offices at each NYRA racetrack. NYRA cooperates fully with those State agencies that have actual legal authority to regulate and audit its operations. The State appoints 11 of NYRA's 25 directors, who oversee and approve NYRA's annual budgets. Any suggestion that the taxpayers are placed at risk by the constitutional prohibition on comptroller audits of NYRA is misleading.
NYRA informed the State legislature at the time the NYRA franchise law was drafted that the State Constitution prohibits the Comptroller from auditing not-for-profit associations, as the State's highest court has clearly ruled. The law is clear. If NYRA and the Comptroller cannot agree amicably on the clear meaning of the Court of Appeals decision, we should agree to immediately seek a declaratory judgment from the judiciary to quickly resolve this matter.

Sentence #1 is a blatant lie. The rest of the statement is spin.

What would you expect NYRA to say? Something like "We're broke and can't make a dime on racing."? That's the truth but it doesn't sound very good.

Of course, the FACTS confuse you.

I unequivocally doubt NYRA is going to publicly post LIES on their website.
Obviously, YOU didn't even READ the rebuttal from NYRA.

I read NYRA's rebuttal and apparently so did the editorial board of the New York Daily News which offered this scathing editorial today entitled: NYRA's Horse Hockey:

Racing Association Must Not Extort New Bailout From Taxpayers

The folks who run the Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga horse tracks must take New York taxpayers for a bunch of chumps.

Claiming to be broke, the New York Racing Association wants to shake down taxpayers for a second huge bailout in two years.

Either the state forks over $30 million by June, President Charles Hayward recently told the Daily News, or NYRA will cancel the Belmont Stakes, third leg of the Triple Crown.

Meanwhile, these same arm-twisters are brazenly stonewalling an audit by Controller Tom DiNapoli - who's understandably curious about what happened to the $105 million NYRA glommed from the state Treasury last year.

Gov. Paterson and the Legislature cannot succumb to such extortion tactics. They should tell NYRA to get lost. If that means the end of the Belmont Stakes, a 105-year tradition, so be it.

For the state to waste even more tax dollars propping up this dying enterprise would be a travesty - a classic case of a compulsive gambler chasing losses.

NYRA's claim to be immune from state scrutiny under some court decision is pure horse manure. Chairman Steven Duncker signed a contract just last year clearly stating that the controller and other state officials "shall have access" to NYRA's financial records. Evidently, Duncker is not a man of his word.

Legalities aside, though, NYRA is morally bound to open its books - having long since morphed from a private outfit to a ward of the state and leech on the public fisc.

Until NYRA cooperates with DiNapoli - and fully accounts for every dime of government money already received - it should forfeit all rights under last year's deal, including its cut of future revenues from video slots to be installed at Aqueduct.

As for any further handouts, Paterson and the Legislature should tell the horsy set to forget about it. Albany's cash window is closed.



http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/200 ... z0bBYcriRx

Pole, wooley I got no dog in this fight as I don't even claim to have any clue about the financial arrangement between the state and NYRA. I will say that I find it interesting that any of the local daily's would be well versed in the situation either so i look at the editorial with a very skeptical eye. Horse racing gets press around here as often there's a snow storm in August. I'm quite sure the News editor's were "pointed" in a certain direction and told to go fetch. I don't absolve NYRA of all wrongdoing but for anyone other than the assigned staff writers that cover horse racing to even know that horse racing exists at the Daily News I find very dubious.