State lawmakers just won’t stop beating this dead horse-betting agency — that is, New York City’s OTB.
Assembly members yesterday OK’d Gov. Paterson’s plan to throw a life preserver to the bankrupt bookie (now there’s an improbable concept for you). And though the Senate declined to vote, there was talk that its members might soon return to bless the plan as well.
Well, of course.
OTB can’t make money, but it sure is a patronage treasure trove.
Agency officials say that without the rescue they’ll have to close OTB immediately — with pink slips going out as early as this week.
If only.
Fact is, the sooner that lame horse gets put down, the better.
Lawmakers should just let it die.
OTB has been a financial disaster for decades — and it’s been “rescued” time and time again.
Yet this agency just can’t overcome the political drag (financial formulas, for example, that have long benefited the state), bureaucratic ineptitude and decline in horse-racing’s popularity that have left OTB broker than broke.
Officials warn that thousands of jobs are at stake and that OTB’s closure would leave taxpayers with $600 million in pension liabilities and other debt.
But that’s like the merchant who admits losing money on every sale but claims to make it up on volume. After all, taxpayers will still be on the hook for most of that debt if OTB stays alive — and it simply stands to reason that public exposure will only increase if it does.
The sooner OTB is shuttered, the sooner the bleeding will stop.
Senators may have understood this in electing not to consider the issue this week. But they should have voted anyway — thumbs down, that is — and gotten it over with, once and for all.
Delaying the inevitable is foolish — especially if it costs taxpayers money.
It’s time to put OTB out of the taxpayers’ misery.