The Florida House Commerce Committee advanced a bill on Tuesday that would allow Gulfstream Park to cease live racing after the next five years while still operating a casino on the track property, just hours after a Senate committee pulled a similar bill from a hearing.
The House committee voted 17-9 to advance a bill that included the decoupling language as a late amendment, four hours after the Senate Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment, and General Government postponed its own hearing on a bill dealing solely with the decoupling issue.
Opponents of the legislation were prepared to testify during the Senate hearing, and the postponement sent them scrambling across the capital to the House committee hearing to register their disapproval there.
Damon Thayer, a former State Senate Majority Leader in Kentucky who is a consultant to a lobbying initiative formed to oppose the Florida decoupling effort, said after the vote that opponents of the legislation were heartened by the Senate decision to postpone its hearing, citing a belief that the bill can be defeated more easily in the Senate.
“Certainly the clock is starting to work more in our favor on the Senate side,” Thayer said. “We’ve always felt like we had a better chance to convince senators that this is a bad bill. And that’s what happened in committee. The House attaching the bill to an unrelated gaming bill shows us how desperate Gulfstream Park is to pass the bill, no matter the consequences.”
The Tuesday vote was the second in the House to approve the measure, and it’s possible that the full bill approved on Tuesday could advance to the House floor for a vote. Two weeks ago, the Senate Regulated Industries Committee advanced a similar bill that included a seven-year protection for live racing.
As in previous committee hearings, dozens of people attached to Florida’s racing and breeding industries either gave testimony in opposition to the bill during the Tuesday hearing or waived their right to testify while registering their opposition. The bill has attracted opposition from nearly every other racing constituency in the state, and it has also led several national racing groups to register their disapproval.
Gulfstream, which is owned by 1/ST Racing and Gaming, a Canadian company headed by Belinda Stronach that has offloaded several U.S. tracks over the past two years, is located on extremely valuable land in Hallandale Beach, Fla. The track currently runs approximately 200 live racing dates on a year-round schedule under an agreement with its horsemen.
At the beginning of this year, officials with 1/ST told horsemen that the company was considering redeveloping Gulfstream or selling the property outright. Under current law, Gulfstream cannot operate the casino unless it runs a minimum of 40 live racing dates per year.
The House version of the bill would not allow Gulfstream’s casino and racing licenses to be decoupled until July 1, 2030. The owner of the track would also need to give a three-year advance on any decision to end live racing, “giving the industry time to adjust and adapt,” according to John Snyder, a co-sponsor of the new House bill.
The new bill also includes a provision allowing the owner of the track to transfer the racing license to another owner or location.
Nothing in current Florida law would prohibit 1/ST from selling the property or developing it as long as the new or current owner did not operate a casino.
Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, the Commerce Committee’s Democratic ranking member, said prior to the vote that she opposed the bill because voters in Broward County, where Gulfstream is located, approved a casino for the track under language that tied the casino license to the continuation of live racing. Hunschofsky said she had voted on that measure herself as a private citizen, prior to being elected.
“We’re undoing things that were approved by voters, and we’re not going back to those same voters after changing the parameters to say we want to make sure you’re okay with it again,” Hunschofsky said.
That same concern was echoed by Rep. Felicia Simone Robinson, who said that “the voters got us here.”
“If this is to go any further with decoupling, it needs to go back to the people,” Robinson said.
Supporters of the legislation have said in previous committee meetings that the state should not get in the way of the decision of private business owners, and others have claimed that the racing industry is struggling to stay afloat. No one, including committee members, spoke during the Tuesday hearing to support the decoupling aspect of the bill other than its co-sponsors, although Jeff Johnson, a lobbyist for 1/ST, waived his testimony in support of the bill.
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Snyder, the co-sponsor, said that the current bill would protect the $30 million in annual subsidies flowing to both tracks and horsemen. Those subsidies allow for capital improvements to the track, tax credits for fees due to the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, and bonuses for owners and breeders.
Lonny Powell, the chief executive of the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association, called the House approval “nothing short of an assault on our industry” in a statement released after the vote. The statement also praised the Senate committee’s decision to postpone its own hearing.
“Decoupling would set an alarming precedent, ignoring the clear and passionate voices of Florida farmers, breeders, owners, and small businesses,” Powell said. “The growing opposition to the legislation shows that our message resonates, and we’re not backing down.”
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