FL House Committee Advances Decoupling, Senate Delays

The fight against The Stronach Group's proposal to decouple Gulfstream Park's racing and slot-machine licenses took an interesting turn April 15 when the Florida Senate's Appropriations Committee on Agriculture, Environment, and General Government postponed hearing the bill, SB 408, in the opening minutes of the session. "Show that the bill is temporarily postponed; we will not be hearing that bill today," said committee chair Jason Brodeur. "If you traveled, I am sorry, but we will not be hearing that bill." Brodeur soon added a joke about no one wanting to hear the rest of the agenda as a large portion of the crowd, present to voice their opposition to the bill, filtered out and over to the Florida House of Representatives, where the House Commerce Committee was set to meet a half-hour later. The House Commerce Committee, which voted in decoupling's favor March 17 in a 15-7 vote, had a revised bill, HB 1467, that covered a wider range of gaming issues as the last item on the agenda Tuesday. An amendment that included the decoupling issue was added April 14, and the bill was approved by the committee 17-9. The only change in votes by the committee members came from four members who missed the March 17 meeting. MITCHELL: Florida House Committee Moves Decoupling Forward As part of the new amendment, racing at Gulfstream Park would be guaranteed to take place through July 1, 2030. The amendment reads: "The bill requires Thoroughbred permitholders to give notice prior to ending live racing and to continue to offer a full schedule of live racing until the end of such notice period. The notice cannot be made prior to July 1, 2027, and the term of the notice must ensure that live racing continues for at least three years after the date of the notice." A provision was also added that a license holder could transfer their license to another facility or individual. "Under current law, if a track wanted to stop racing, they would not be able to do that, so racing would discontinue," said the original decoupling bill's sponsor, Tampa Bay Republican representative Adam Anderson. "If this bill passes, there's an opportunity for someone else to pick up that license or an opportunity for that current permit holder to move to another location." There are now two separate bills that involve decoupling in the House, HB 105 and HB 1467, eligible to go to the House floor for a vote. For the bill to reach the Senate chamber floor, they are typically approved by two committees. Only one Senate committee, the Regulated Industries Committee, has acted on the bill and gave its approval April 1. Both the House and Senate bills need to be identical in order for the bill to pass and go to the governor for his signature. The Florida legislative session runs through May 2. PEREZ: Florida Senate Committee Advances Decoupling Bill The Thoroughbred Racing Initiative has always felt that their best chance to defeat the bill was in the Senate. Despite the approval from the House, former Kentucky state senator and senior advisor to the TRI Damon Thayer was pleased with Tuesday's development. "It was a very good day for us," Thayer said. "The fight is not over. The Senate delaying the bill was a significant step in the right direction. However, the House attaching the bill to another piece of gaming legislation shows how desperate Gulfstream Park is to pass decoupling. We will continue to be wary during the waning weeks of the session." That time crunch was evident during the public comment section of the House Commerce Committee meeting as several Thoroughbred industry representatives asked the committee to say no to decoupling for now and give the industry a chance to come up with a plan that benefits all involved. "I would like to ask that you defeat decoupling this year and set it on the table so that we have time to come up with real and fair solutions that will be acceptable to everyone involved," said owner and breeder Mandy Pope of Whisper Hill Farm. "We only knew about this in January and have not had time to get our industry together and focused. We're trying desperately to do this, but time is of the essence, and we've been trying really hard. We just ask that this be tabled to give us time. We want to be fair to everyone involved." Florida trainer Jena Antonucci, the first female trainer to win a Triple Crown race when Arcangelo won the 2023 Belmont Stakes (G1), asked the same of the committee. "Why are we rushing a $3 billion industry through legislation? Let's take time to get it strengthened for generations to come," Antonucci said. "Our industry continues to robustly and passionately express interest in growing supply—breeding—and demand—which is our racing. However, this bill directly undermines that desire by destabilizing the industry not just within Florida, but nationally." In total, over 40 members of the public registered their opposition to the committee, a mixture of Thoroughbred industry members and representatives of veteran groups opposed to another section of the bill over concern that certain machines within their organizations would open them up to criminal penalties if the devices were deemed illegal. Ten members of the Thoroughbred community spoke in opposition, while the majority of the rest waived their right to speak. There were also four representatives of veteran groups who spoke in opposition. Thayer said that they were prepared for "our best testimony yet" in the Senate committee but were "pleasantly surprised" when the bill was postponed. Once the bill was delayed, the coalition moved over to the House to testify, calling an audible in the speaking game plan. "We made a conscious decision to have fewer people testify because we know that the skids are greased in the House, so we wanted to put up a fight," Thayer said. "We decided to call an audible. A good quarterback knows when to make in-game changes, and that's what we decided to do. We decided to go with a smaller lineup and hit some different points to make, but not have the full array of speakers. We'll keep our powder dry just in case this bill gets heard in a Senate committee next week." Only two people voiced support for the bill: a representative from Gulfstream Park and a representative of a non-racing entity in support of other sections of the bill. Both waived their right to speak. At the end of the public comment session, Anderson attempted to ease any concern about the financial state of the industry should decoupling pass. "There's somewhere around $30 million annually that goes into the Thoroughbred industry; a combination of subsidies and revenue-sharing arrangements," Anderson said. "That's not changing. No one is touching that. In fact, we're making that process more efficient, and I would argue that would put more money in the hands of breeders, owners, and the folks who are doing the work every day in this great industry." All 17 votes in favor of the bill came from Republicans, while all seven democratic members voted against the bill. David Smith, who represents Seminole County, was one of two Republicans to vote no on the bill. He stated that following the previous March 17 meeting, he took a trip to Tampa Bay Downs to learn more about the issue. "I spent a beautiful day at the races; the stands were full," Smith said. "I got to talk to a lot of people, folks that had boots on the ground perspective of Thoroughbred racing in Florida. Not a single person was for decoupling." Democratic ranking member Christine Hunchofsky of Broward County, where Gulfstream Park is located, and representative Felicia Robinson of Broward and Miami-Dade counties also spoke against the bill, citing that voters in their district and in the state had previously voted to allow the racetracks to have slot machines in 2004 and 2005. "My concern here is that we are undoing things that were approved by voters, and we're not going back to those same voters and saying, 'We're changing the parameters, we want to make sure you're okay with it again,'" Hunchofsky said. "As someone who voted in both those elections, I am going to vote no today to support the choices that were made by the residents of Broward County." "If this was going to go any further with the decoupling, it needs to go back to the people," Robinson said. "We should not be doing that here because anything that we do that does not agree with what the people voted on is us going against their vote." Representatives Michelle Salzman of Escambia County and Mike Giallombardo of Lee County spoke in favor of the bill without addressing decoupling or the Thoroughbred industry.