First-year Western Regional Off-Track Betting CEO Byron Brown has a four-point legislative plan he's pursuing in Albany in his attempt to grow the business and generate more revenue for the 17 municipalities that own the organization.
The top priority is reducing OTB's tax rate from 49% to 44%. That five percentage point drop would increase revenue for Batavia Downs by $4.5 million.
"We propose to use that revenue to increase disbursements to the 17 member municipalities, which would certainly make 17 governments in Western New York financially stronger," Brown said. "We would also look to provide raises to our hard-working employees, and you know that would certainly go back into the economy of Western New York, and finally, our interest would be to reduce what our employees pay for their family health insurance."
The reduction would make the OTB's tax rate more equitable with Hamburg Gaming and Vernon Downs.
"This would not affect either of those operations," Brown said. "Of course, gaming is a very competitive industry. This would make us more competitive in the industry, and these revenues would go to 17 municipalities and to the employees who work here."
Brown noted that WROTB is unique in that it has 17 member-owners and distributes revenue to 17 municipalities. No other gaming operation in the state has as many stakeholders receiving revenue from the operation.
"Suffolk OTB, for example, has one municipality to which they provide resources," Brown said. "In our case, we have 17. So this has a positive financial impact on 17 different municipalities in Western New York. This is also the fifth largest employer, with roughly 420 employees, in Genesee County, and 52% of those employees are unionized employees."
Brown is also aiming at ensuring WROTB gets a piece of the action if iGaming is approved by the state, a project favored, Brown said, by the chair of the Senate Committee on Racing, Wagering, and Gaming.
iGaming means online gambling, which includes casino games, sports betting, and online poker.
There are statutes in New York that also require, besides the tax, OTBs to pay fees to the gaming commission. Brown is seeking a reduction in those fees.
The fourth item on his legislative agenda is to extend the boundaries for WROTB's E-Z Bet machines. Right now, they can't be placed more than 40 miles away from the track. That leaves out portions of Erie County.
These are the sort of issues board members expected Brown to tackle when they approved his employment contract. As a former mayor and former state legislator, he has a lifetime of political connections in Albany.
But that doesn't mean winning support for these initiatives will be easy.
Annual budget planning starts in June, and Brown started his new position in October, so that's a challenge for Brown to overcome, but he's working at it, he said.
"We're a little behind where we would like to be in terms of our legislative agenda, but we have hit the ground running," Brown said. "I've been to Albany talking to state legislators and the governor's staff and others. You know, the last trip to Albany was just another step in that process. I attended the governor's State of the State speech. We requested a number of meetings with members of the Assembly and with the Governor's staff, and all of the meetings that we requested were granted. So we feel that we're being listened to, that we're being heard, and people have been very receptive to our concerns and our needs."