A controversial bill that would have allowed pari-mutuel betting apparently has come up lame. And the bill's sponsor, Rep. David Adams, R-Monticello, will replace it with a measure to instead offer financial incentives to horse breeders who stay in Utah.
"It appears that the majority of this Legislature and possibly the Utah population finds that pari-mutuel betting is an unacceptable mechanism for funding the horse industry," Adams said. "And I concur with that assessment."But with a $1.5 billion Utah industry in the grip of economic hard times, Adams said the state now must shoulder some of the financial responsibility for keeping horse breeders in the state.
Under Adams' bill, which will be unveiled Wednesday, the Legislature would create a Horse Racing Commission that would be funded partly from state tax money and partly from licenses and fees imposed by and upon the horse industry.
About $250,000 to $500,000 would go into the fund every year. The fund would be used to enhance racing purses and provide financial incentives to keep successful breeders and their winning horses in Utah.
"This is not unprecedented in the Legislature," he said. "When the diaper industry needed an incentive, the Legislature stepped forward. We did it with the steel industry, with the oil industry, with airlines, with minerals. And all with pretty good results."
States surrounding Utah already have state-funded financial incentive programs for horse breeders. Many of those are funded through pari-mutuel betting.
With the pari-mutuel-betting funding mechanism unacceptable, Utah lawmakers could provide the same kind of incentives through other means. In this case, tax money and industry fees, Adams said.
Utah now has no organized body through which national racing organizations can conduct sanctioned races. The American Quarter Horse Association already has announced it no longer will sanction races or shows in Utah, and without those kinds of sanctioned events Utah breeders cannot get their animals "indexed." An index is a type of speed rating that often determines the value of the animal.
"If they can't get their horses indexed in Utah, those horses have no value, and they will move to a state where they do," Adams said. "It's pure economics. Without a Utah program, it is highly possible that we will have an out-migration of our registered breeding animals."
That would have a significant impacton rural Utah in particular, Adams said. If the breeders leave, they are no longer buying alfalfa, horse trailers, pickup trucks and construction supplies. And it also forces trainers, jockeys and others to leave the state.
Adams' original bill would have allowed pari-mutuel betting in counties where local voters approved it in a referendum.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has lobbied actively against any form of gambling legislation, including the pari-mutuel bill.
During a meeting between the LDS Church Public Affairs Office and regional representatives of the church late Friday, a list of members of the Rules Committee - and priesthood positions they hold in the LDS Church - was handed out. The information was distributed in at least one stake, according to Bud Scruggs, volunteer church lobbyist on the gambling issue.
"The list was put together by someone for reasons not clear to anyone," he said, adding that it was "startling" because it was "useless information" and not helpful because all legislators would have been lobbied to oppose the bill.
"The list had not useful purpose on a logistic or strategic level," Scruggs said. "It was not widely distributed either."
Asked if any of his local LDS officials had contacted him, Adams said no. "The church has as much right to lobby up here as any other organization. If they choose to use their internal organization to do that, that's their discretion."