Photo by Howard Owens
A State Supreme Court judge ruled today that a lawsuit can proceed challenging a new weighted voting system for the 15 counties and cities of Rochester and Buffalo that make up Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp's ownership.
Through the first 50 years of WROTB, each entity had the same vote, or one vote, for each municipality, regardless of the population.
However, the state budget approved about a year ago included legislation that implemented a new weighted voting system. It gives 99 votes total, with more populous municipalities getting more votes. Erie County gets the most with 24 votes, while the four smallest counties, Orleans, Wyoming, Seneca and Schuyler, get one each.
Here is the breakdown of votes per municipality:
- Erie County: 24
- Monroe County: 20
- City of Buffalo: 10
- City of Rochester and Niagara: 8
- Chautauqua: 5
- Oswego: 4
- Steuben, Wayne, Cattaraugus, Cayuga: 3
- Livingston and Genesee: 2
- Wyoming, Orleans, Seneca, Schuyler: 1
Six counties filed lawsuits against Gov. Kathy Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James, the State Senate, and the State Assembly.
The counties in the lawsuit are all Republican-led and include Orleans, Genesee, Niagara, Livingston, Wyoming, and Seneca. Oswego was also added to the lawsuit today.
The lawsuit was filed in September in Orleans County, and a motion to dismiss the case was heard today by Judge Frank Caruso.
Joe Terragnoli, representing the Attorney General’s Office, appeared in court today with Dennis Vacco, representing the seven counties.
Vacco said the case is a very important challenge, showing smaller rural counties standing up to a “power grab” imposed by the state.
“I’m a little emotional about it because I think they receive these types of shenanigans from Albany all the time,” Vacco, a former state attorney general, told the judge in court this afternoon.
The municipalities in WROTB fronted the money to start WROTB in 1973, which has returned about $245 million in profits to the municipalities. Terragnoli said the initial funding to start WROTB has been paid back – many times – to the counties.
“It’s been a very lucrative deal,” he said. “They gave loans, and they were paid in full.”
That contribution never guaranteed an equal vote for perpetuity. The money didn’t purchase voting rights, Terragnoli said.
The state has the right to restructure the board with a weighted vote, he said.
Vacco said the smaller counties never would have put up the money if they had such a small voice at the board table.
He said the change could harm the smaller counties economically, especially if the four members with the most votes – Erie, Monroe, Rochester and Buffalo – get together and make a decision that could hurt the payouts to the other counties. Vacco said the four larger municipalities could go on a hiring spree, approve a capital project the others oppose, or even sell Batavia Downs.
The racetrack in Batavia has 912 video gaming machines that generate about $7 million in profits each month. WROTB also has nine OTB branches and 24 EZ Bet locations.
Vacco also said the legislation approved in May 2023 specifically targeted WROTB and not the other regional OTBs in the state – Capital OTB, Catskill OTB, Nassau OTB and Suffolk OTB.
Terragnoli acknowledged the legislation, pushed by State Sen. Tim Kennedy of South Buffalo, was partly in response to allegations of mismanagement by WROTB. The organization was faulted in an audit by State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, who said the organization’s leadership did not properly account for $120,000 worth of sports and event tickets purchased by the company. Kennedy and others have characterized the account error as "corruption."
WROTB has said there are tighter controls now for how those tickets are distributed.
The state comptroller and attorney general also have questioned WROTB for providing fully paid health insurance coverage to board members. The organization has also ended health benefits for new board appointees.
Terragnoli said the WROTB board didn’t do enough to self-correct, which prompted the legislation with the weighted voting for the board. That legislation also removed all the board members at the time, with the 15 counties and two cities to appoint either the same representatives or new ones. (Orleans County opted to reappoint Ed Morgan to the role. Genesee County's director, Richard Siebert, turned in his resignation over the board restructuring and later was replaced by former Genesee County Court Judge Charles Zambito).
Terragnoli said the counties that have sued the state over the changes with the board at WROTB are now claiming they could be hurt financially.
“Where was the concern when the comptroller’s report came out?” he said in court about the unaccounted tickets and perks intended for Batavia Downs customers.
Vacco also said the legislation championed by Kennedy twice failed to pass the Legislature on its own merits. It only passed when it was included in the state budget vote in an act of “subterfuge.”
The legislation would needed a two-thirds majority vote if it had been a standalone bill, Vacco said. It didn’t get the two-thirds threshold as part of the state budget, which is another reason the weighted-voting change should be negated, he said.
Vacco said the counties will wait for the state to file its response to today’s ruling. An evidentiary hearing could also be one of the next steps in the case.
Tom Rivers is editor of Orleans County Hub
