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BOSTON (State House News Service) — House and Senate Democrats struck a deal Monday night to provide state aid to flood-ravaged farmers, support struggling hospitals, and attempt to avert another temporary disruption to horse racing and simulcasting.
Wrapping up another issue lawmakers procrastinated until the eleventh hour, the Legislature shipped Gov. Maura Healey a $200 million bill that likely represents one of the last, if not the very last, major actions before lawmakers break for vacations in August.
The new agreement (H 4034) extends authorization for racing and simulcasting, which had been set to expire at the day's end without action, until Dec. 15, 2025. To avoid the cancellation of races, though, Healey will have to sign the extension into law by Tuesday afternoon.
It also steers $180 million toward fiscally strained hospitals and appropriates $20 million in one-time aid for central and western Massachusetts farmers who sustained massive crop losses due to recent storms.
Each of the three provisions had featured in some form in much larger fiscal year 2023 supplemental budgets -- totaling $693 million in the House and $513 million in the Senate -- that the branches approved in recent weeks. Legislative leaders did not send those bills into official conference committee negotiations, and instead, their fates became unclear amid another round of bickering between top Democrats.
The scaled-down accord evolved quietly over the course of Monday evening after the Legislature took its final votes on an overdue compromise fiscal year 2024 budget. Most lawmakers had departed the House and Senate chambers shortly after approving the annual budget around 4 p.m., some decamping for familiar Beacon Hill watering holes.
After a few rounds of trading proposals, the final compromise landed at a 29-month simulcast extension until Dec. 15, 2025, with $180 million for hospitals and $20 million for farmers.
Farm aid had emerged as a priority for Senate President Karen Spilka and her top deputies, who trekked to Hatfield to announce their plans for the funding before weaving it into their version of the broader supplemental budget.
Top House Democrats previously showed no interest in deploying state dollars toward supporting farmers whose fields and pastures were inundated by recent floods. While debating their version of the supplemental budget, they declined to advance an amendment from Deerfield Rep. Natalie Blais that would have launched an "Agricultural Disaster Relief Fund" with $20 million.
Gov. Maura Healey has also traveled to central and western Massachusetts several times to survey the damage, though she called for private donations to support affected Bay Staters and has not signaled any plans to pursue state spending on aid.
Monday's compromise means racing and simulcasting should see a limited impact, if any, from their imminent legal expiration.
In 2018, the Legislature failed to extend the racing and simulcasting laws before they expired, causing the cancellation of races and the loss of business at tracks. And last year, with lawmakers extending their July 31 sessions until mid-morning on Aug. 1, horse racing and simulcasting were again briefly illegal. Lawmakers sent Gov. Charlie Baker an extension bill around 3:30 a.m. and he signed it before the day's races were to go off.
The track at Plainridge Park Casino in Plainville -- which has been the only home of live horse racing in Massachusetts since Suffolk Downs ran its last race in June 2019 -- has races scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday this week, with a post time of 4 p.m. both days. The simulcast centers at Raynham Park and Suffolk Downs are both closed Tuesday, but each plans to reopen Wednesday with races starting just after noon.
The Mass. Gaming Commission, which oversees horse racing and simulcasting, said Monday that it had been in touch with Plainridge and the simulcast centers to let them know that live racing and simulcast operations will be required to cease unless extension legislation is signed, a spokesman said.
The Gaming Commission has for years supported legislation that would extend the legal authority for racing and simulcasting for more than one year at a time.
"An extension beyond one year would be the Commission's preference to allow for long-term planning within the horse racing community. The live racing season is well underway at Plainridge Park Casino (Plainridge) and any delay in extending the legislation would have a significant impact on horsemen, as well as the employees of Plainridge and the simulcasting operators throughout the Commonwealth," the commission wrote in a mid-June letter to legislative leaders. "A delay would also have a detrimental impact on account wagering activity which provides needed revenue for the licensees, horsemen's purse accounts, and Division of Racing."
Last week, with the racing and simulcasting sunset date approaching, the commission again sent its letter to legislative leaders and Interim Executive Director Todd Grossman reached out personally to members of leadership, the spokesman said.
The bill also includes language allowing for the transfer of the Suffolk Downs racing and simulcasting license to another location in Suffolk County.
Since the last extension of the racing and simulcast wagering law, Massachusetts has introduced legal sports betting. Horse racing, however, is not among the dozens of events that sportsbooks and mobile betting platforms are allowed to take action on and the sport of kings could remain on a statutory footing of its own as long as the Legislature continues to simply extend, rather than reform, the existing laws.
Betting on horse racing is authorized under its own discrete law and is allowed on live races and on races held elsewhere that are simulcast at Plainridge, Suffolk Downs, or Raynham Park. The law also allowed advanced deposit wagering, in which bettors pre-fund accounts and can place wagers over the phone or online. But that same set of laws also "expressly criminalizes" managing, wagering, or betting on dog and horse racing except as it specifically provides for, Gaming Commission officials said earlier this year.
Massachusetts has different laws for betting on horse races and betting on sports or gambling at a casino. State law requires someone to be at least 21 years old to bet on sports or play at a casino, but a person who is at least 18 years old is allowed to bet on horse races.
Written by Chris Lisinski and Colin A. Young/SHNS
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