By Sarina Trangle
The New York Racing Association and state Assemblyman Phillip Goldfeder (D-Rockaway Beach) are at odds over which community is entitled to revenue generated at Resorts World in South Ozone Park.
Goldfeder railed against NYRA for funneling “a large majority” of capital improvements funding from the racino in Queens to Belmont Park in Long Island and Saratoga Arena upstate rather than tending to the decaying Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens.
Flanked by union leaders representing track employees, Goldfeder announced Monday that he has drafted a bill that would bar NYRA from using capital improvement money gathered at Resorts World for projects outside the city.
“Enough is enough. It’s about time that NYRA stop giving our money away and invest in the community the money is being raised in,” Goldfeder said in the Aqueduct lobby. “The right bet should be placed on Aqueduct, and if we place the right bet, we’re going to hit the jackpot.”
But NYRA, which has a franchise agreement to operate the three state-owned racetracks, said it handed over land at the Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga tracks to the state in exchange for receiving a portion of the revenues generated at Resorts World’s video lottery terminals.
Under this agreement, NYRA Communications Director Eric Wing said the racino’s operator, Genting Group New York, agreed to earmark 4 percent of money collected after paying out winnings for capital improvements at Aqueduct, Elmont and Saratoga.
Resorts World, which declined comment, operates on the same property as Aqueduct and the two businesses share the 110-00 Rockaway Blvd. address.
“Assemblyman Goldfeder is calling for all of those monies to be spent, 100 percent on Aqueduct. But in the past year we’ve spent well over $5 million on Aqueduct,” Wing said. “We have an obligation to all three of our racetracks.”
Neither the assemblyman nor NYRA could say precisely how much of the 4 percent was invested in work at each racetrack over the past three years.
The assemblyman said capital improvement funding fluctuates, but this year 4 percent of Resorts Worlds’ profits amounted to about $31.4 million. He argued such money should go toward fixing up Aqueduct and spurring economic development in South Ozone Park with a hotel, convention center, water park or other services that would create jobs and bring more people to the area.
But Wing said all three racetracks were decades-old and required major maintenance work. He said NYRA had spent $5 million on a host of projects at Aqueduct this year, including a new simulcasting center slated to open this April, a micro-chip system for monitoring horses mid-race, improved lighting as well as painting and mural work. Wing said NYRA planned to spend millions at Aqueduct next year.
Goldfeder said he remains open to reviewing proposals to replace Aqueduct with other facilities, but so long as the horses race, the state owes it to the surrounding community to ensure that the facility does not drag down the neighborhood.
“Either we’re going to make Aqueduct the world-class facility it deserves to be or make a decision on what we’re going to do for the future,” Goldfeder said, adding that he wrote the governor urging him to examine the track’s state. “Conditions at Aqueduct Racetrack, the once top thoroughbred site in the country, have recently worsened with crime and violence.”
The Queens district attorney charged an Aqueduct patron with sexually assaulting a 40-year-old disabled woman in a bathroom at the racetrack Feb. 2.
Reach reporter Sarina Trangle at 718-260-4546 or by e-mail at strangle@cnglocal.com.
