Complex Maryland Track Funding Bill Dies as Session Expires

The complex, on-again/off-again negotiations in the Maryland legislature that would have provided $120 million in bond funding for The Stronach Group (TSG)'s proposed Laurel Park “super track” project so long as TSG also committed to refurbishing Pimlico Race Course died Monday, the final day of the General Assembly's session.

According to the Baltimore Business Journal (BBJ), the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee attempted to salvage the plan by rewriting another bill that initially dealt with funding for the upkeep of the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium.

That new proposal had support last week in the Senate, but was opposed by House delegates from Baltimore in a unanimous vote on Saturday because, as the BBJ reported, “Baltimore leaders see an infusion of cash into Laurel as the death knell for the [GI] Preakness [S.] at Pimlico.”

The Senate was scheduled to give the bill a final vote on Monday, but instead sent it back to the committee only hours before the midnight expiration of the legislative session, an action that the Baltimore Sun described as “a procedural move that marked the defeat of the measure.”

So with the Maryland Stadium Authority's ambitious $424 million Pimlico refurbishing plan five months in the rear view mirror, an existing lawsuit currently percolating in a Baltimore court in which the city wants to seize Pimlico and the Preakness by eminent domain, and the second jewel of the Triple Crown looming five weeks away, the uncomfortable status quo remains in place for Maryland racing right now.

Senate President Thomas V. “Mike” Miller told the Sun that the failure of the legislation was “a major disappointment” of the 90-day session.

TSG won't get the $120 million in help that it wanted to further development at Laurel to enable it to host events like the Preakness and the Breeders' Cup while resurrecting the former Bowie Race Track as a training center.

“The City has had over three years to propose a plan and funding source to redevelop Pimlico,” Bill Hecht, the chief executive and president of TSG's real estate division, said in a statement. “Instead, the City has derailed constructive efforts at the state level to provide a funding source intended for the betterment of the entire Maryland racing industry in favor of an ill-advised lawsuit attempting to improperly take over our business enterprise. As we've said before, the status quo isn't viable, and a lawsuit isn't a strategy.”

Timonium, which hosts the state fair race meet every August, got dragged into the crossfire via the last-minute attempt to construct a compromise bill. As a result, it won't get the matching Racetrack Facility Renewal Account funds it was seeking for its own facility improvements. The Racing Biz reported that amount as “between $300,000 and $350,000 annually.”

Delegate Michele Guyton, who sponsored the original Timonium bill before its radical rewrite, told the BBJ that “[Timonium] needs work. I would have loved to see capital improvements. I'll be bringing the bill back next year.”