How much funding do communities deserve for hosting state-run slot machine parlors?

That’s become an issue this tough budget season after Gov. David Paterson proposed slashing in half this year’s almost $14 million given to 17 municipalities that have video lottery terminals within their borders.

Saratoga Springs, home of 1,700 VLTs at Saratoga Gaming & Raceway, stands to lose almost $1.7 million next year if the state Legislature adopts the plan, and Saratoga County would lose $553,000, said Matt Anderson, a state Division of Budget spokesman.

Faced with losing almost five percent of its budgeted revenue for 2009, city officials lobbied Senate and Assembly leaders for more than three hours Monday for the full funding.

“There was no major breakthrough,” said Accounts Commissioner John Franck. He and other City Council members plan to protest the cuts on the Capitol steps today with representatives from at least three other communities with VLTs: Thompson, Sullivan County; Hamburg, Erie County; and Vernon, Oneida County.

Franck said state leaders should “stick to their original agreement” on VLT monies.

But unlike past treks down the Northway to argue for the annual aid, Franck acknowledged that two things were very different this year: The state economy lies in ruins, and the city no longer has former Senator Joseph Bruno fighting for it.

“Not having Joe Bruno, it’s huge,” said Franck, a Democrat. “Where’s our pull? I just don’t see it.”

VLT impact aid was established in the 2005-2006 state fiscal year to help compensate municipalities for costs associated with hosting gambling parlors.

The state will still “meet the intended purpose of the program” with half the funding, Anderson said. He said the 2010-2011 VLT funding for Saratoga Springs is proposed to remain at half the $3.3 million it received this year.

Saratoga Gaming & Raceway was the first “racino” to open in the state in 2004. It now generates the second-most revenue of the eight in New York behind Empire City at Yonkers Raceway. Net machine income at the Spa facility since April is $83 million, with 55 percent of that (about $46 million) going to the state’s education coffers and lottery administration.

Yonkers would be the only municipality with VLTs to not have its annual aid changed under Paterson’s plan, Anderson said. That’s because the VLT money Yonkers receives goes directly to its city school district, as opposed to other municipalities that use the aid as they see fit, Anderson said.

If Saratoga Springs is unsuccessful in its lobbying, city leaders would have to close the hole in its $38.5 million general fund budget. Getting only half its VLT aid could increase city taxes by double digits if other cuts are not made, Finance Commissioner Kenneth Ivins said. The City Council must approve its budget by the end of the month.

Source: Times Union