{"id":13911,"date":"2014-06-25T10:53:55","date_gmt":"2014-06-25T18:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=13911"},"modified":"2014-06-25T10:53:55","modified_gmt":"2014-06-25T18:53:55","slug":"the-great-horse-robbery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/the-great-horse-robbery\/","title":{"rendered":"The great horse robbery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/horse.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-13755\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/horse.jpg\" alt=\"horse\" width=\"277\" height=\"241\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/horse.jpg 241w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/horse-150x130.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 277px) 100vw, 277px\" \/><\/a>Pennsylvania<\/strong>&#8216;s horse tracks <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bizjournals.com\/philadelphia\/morning_roundup\/2014\/06\/pa-horse-racing-industry-in-jeopardy-of-a.html\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"broken_link\">are on the brink<\/a>, not from the usual reason &#8212; bad business &#8212; but due to state malfeasance. According to the <strong>State Racing Fund<\/strong>, it&#8217;s been sucked dry by the <strong>Department of Agriculture<\/strong>, including undocumented personnel costs. The Ag Department has been evidently been dipping into the Racing Fund whenever it had a financial hole to plug. Its dubious expenditures including hiring a\u00a0<span style=\"color: #444444;\">Special Agriculture Advisor to the Governor, on a six-figure salary, and billing it to the Racing Fund.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The money in question is supposed to be going toward <!--more-->collecting various taxes and fees, funding the\u00a0<span style=\"color: #444444;\"><strong>Horse &amp;\u00a0Harness Racing Commissions<\/strong> and <strong>Equine Laboratories<\/strong>,\u00a0just for starters. Said Auditor General <strong>Eugene DePasquale<\/strong>,\u00a0\u201cIf the State Racing Fund goes bankrupt, the racing industry would shut down.\u201d The <strong>Race Horse Development Fund<\/strong> has been the victim of a similar help-yourself attitude, including plowing $185 million into the state&#8217;s general fund.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>These funds find themselves caught between this pillaging and a 24% decline in wagering at Keystone State tracks since 2010. So, with that kind of pinch in effect, legislators need to slap the Agriculture Department&#8217;s mitts to make sure it doesn&#8217;t happen again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pennsylvania&#8216;s horse tracks are on the brink, not from the usual reason &#8212; bad business &#8212; but due to state malfeasance. According to the State Racing Fund, it&#8217;s been sucked dry by the Department of Agriculture, including undocumented personnel costs. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/the-great-horse-robbery\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[67,95,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13911"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13911"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13913,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13911\/revisions\/13913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}