The Downs: Stables, Horsemen and Jobs Not Needed.
November 18, 2012
The Dirty Downs deal is the deal that keeps on giving—to the Friends of Susana—often at the expense of the taxpayers and those employed in the state’s horseracing industry.
“We do now have that option to raise (sic) those barns if we wanted to and put anything from a parking structure to a sporting goods store in there”, Expo NM spokesman Michael Henningsen told KRQE news.
Henningsen’s comment came during his defense of the one-sided contract between the state and the Downs at Albuquerque, which ended the Downs’ responsibility for taking care of horse barns and stables at the state fairgrounds. Now the decrepit barns and stables are the taxpayers’ burden.
The one-sided contract came as a reward by Susana Martinez to her hefty campaign contributors who own the Downs.
Why have barns and stables at a racetrack when they can be “raised” in order to make way for a national sporting goods company like Cabela’s or Bass Pro Shop?
Neither Bass Pro Shop nor Cabela’s have a physical presence in Albuquerque, a great market for those outfitting hunters and fishermen. The high traffic intersection of Louisiana and Lomas is an extremely valuable location for just such a business.
Both companies have a track record of receiving generous government assistance in exchange for building stores that generate fewer jobs for the local economy than is proportional to the taxpayer funded assistance received.
This week as reported by KOB-TV, the Downs and the Martinez administration cut off access to the racetrack for horse owners preventing them from using the facility as they have for decades to train their horses during the off season. Preventing the horses from training at the track could lead to the loss of 200 to 300 jobs in the Albuquerque area, according to one horse owner.
The construction work at the Downs is progressing at a snail’s pace. On Friday, workers were roughing in plumbing that will go beneath the slab. The Downs contract was approved by Martinez almost a year ago with promises that the project would be completed by the end of 2012. Almost a year later they are just starting with the foundation.
Removing horseman from the property, giving the land where the barns and stables sit to private companies, hiring Darren White as the general manager, and dragging out the construction process show this contract was never about horseracing.
Rather, it has been about enriching a select few closely connected to Martinez.
_____________________________________________________________
November 18, 2012
The Dirty Downs deal is the deal that keeps on giving—to the Friends of Susana—often at the expense of the taxpayers and those employed in the state’s horseracing industry.
“We do now have that option to raise (sic) those barns if we wanted to and put anything from a parking structure to a sporting goods store in there”, Expo NM spokesman Michael Henningsen told KRQE news.
Henningsen’s comment came during his defense of the one-sided contract between the state and the Downs at Albuquerque, which ended the Downs’ responsibility for taking care of horse barns and stables at the state fairgrounds. Now the decrepit barns and stables are the taxpayers’ burden.
The one-sided contract came as a reward by Susana Martinez to her hefty campaign contributors who own the Downs.
Why have barns and stables at a racetrack when they can be “raised” in order to make way for a national sporting goods company like Cabela’s or Bass Pro Shop?
Neither Bass Pro Shop nor Cabela’s have a physical presence in Albuquerque, a great market for those outfitting hunters and fishermen. The high traffic intersection of Louisiana and Lomas is an extremely valuable location for just such a business.
Both companies have a track record of receiving generous government assistance in exchange for building stores that generate fewer jobs for the local economy than is proportional to the taxpayer funded assistance received.
This week as reported by KOB-TV, the Downs and the Martinez administration cut off access to the racetrack for horse owners preventing them from using the facility as they have for decades to train their horses during the off season. Preventing the horses from training at the track could lead to the loss of 200 to 300 jobs in the Albuquerque area, according to one horse owner.
The construction work at the Downs is progressing at a snail’s pace. On Friday, workers were roughing in plumbing that will go beneath the slab. The Downs contract was approved by Martinez almost a year ago with promises that the project would be completed by the end of 2012. Almost a year later they are just starting with the foundation.
Removing horseman from the property, giving the land where the barns and stables sit to private companies, hiring Darren White as the general manager, and dragging out the construction process show this contract was never about horseracing.
Rather, it has been about enriching a select few closely connected to Martinez.
_____________________________________________________________