Casino tax subsidies totaling almost $3.3 billion have gone to the state’s horse racing industry since 2004. It’s time to redirect a substantial portion of those monies to other needs in Pennsylvania.
A recent poll by Franklin & Marshall College found that 83% of respondents favored using the $240 million annual allocation for other public purposes than the support of horse racing. Only 10% of those surveyed wanted to keep the current arrangement.
The poll, commissioned by Education Voters of Pennsylvania, found that there was overwhelming support for redirecting the 12% of slots tax funding that now goes to the Race Horse Development Fund.
The survey comes as Gov. Tom Wolf has pushed to redirect the casino tax subsidies to his proposed Nellie Bly Scholarship Program.
