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Originally Posted by Cannon Shell
Typical bs from the same old crybabies looking to curry favor with unions. The whole "education" argument is lame but people seem not to be able to see it for what it is, pandering to the teachers union. These mandates were given to the horse racing industry in lieu of casino licenses, the idea being that the politicians could take care of everyone. But now they want to renege on the deal because the state is broke? We are talking about money that has yet to even be made in a casino that does not yet exist. I'm tired of horseracing being treated as though it is not an important business that raises huge amounts of money for state governments. Why not place a tax on the current Cubs owners who are about to make a huge windfall on the sale of the team? It makes about as much sense.
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That may be part of it, but I think that angle is overhyped a bit. The big problem is simply that almost every politician - regardless of party - is only ever interested in short-term solutions because most of them can't see past the next election. If some new spending can be spun as spending on "education," a politician would be commiting political suicide if he or she voted against it. Too many of them just lack any sort of political courage whatsoever.
Investing in an industry that does - as you say - raise large amounts of money for the state, never seems to cross any of their minds because there is no immediate political advantage gained from it. The fact that investing more money in horse racing - or a host of other things - could improve the product, and therefore raise even more money for the state goverment, seems to be a concept that most of them are unwilling to care about. They just spend, spend, spend....without ever really investing in future financial security.