By Amelia Arvesen
KU Statehouse Wire Service
Racehorse owners Starlet and Charley Hunt live and work in four states during the year but they call Kansas home.
It’s where they married. It’s where they started a life together racing quarter horses. It’s where they housed 50 horses at the Woodlands Racetrack in Wyandotte County. It’s where Charley, a former jockey, was recognized as a top horse trainer.
“There’s a few of us who are really big in it but there used to be a lot more,” Starlet said.
In 2008, the Hunts transported their business out of state traveling to Oklahoma, Iowa and Minnesota when the Woodlands closed. It was no longer able to afford a tax increase from 22 to 40 percent on slot machines.
Now the Woodlands Racetrack sits vacant, guarded by security but withering more as time passes. Wyandotte County residents want it reopened, saying it will spark a horse racing revival in Kansas.
“It’s a dying industry in this state and it doesn’t need to be,” Starlet said.
In a February hearing, Kansas legislators discussed Senate Bill 192, which would lower the tax from 40 to 22 percent on slot machines operating at horse tracks. State-owned casinos are taxed 22 percent under current Kansas law.
The tax reduction would provide incentive for investors to reopen the racetrack, located in Leavenworth, Republican Sen. Steve Fitzgerald’s district.
“Folks actively engaged in racing today are doing so outside the state of Kansas, fostering none of the economic benefits associated with a vibrant horse-racing culture,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald said the racetrack’s liveliness was similar to the Kentucky Derby, an all-day affair with sun hats, mint juleps and thousands of race horses. Slot machines are needed, he said, to cover the overhead expenses of the facility.
Whitney Damron with the Kansas Entertainment, LLC, said reopening the racetrack would jeopardize the viability of casinos such as the Hollywood Casino at the Kansas Speedway, located six miles from the Woodlands Racetrack.
“Changing the rules … puts us at a competitive disadvantage and risks future investment that we have indicated we would like to see made at that facility,” Damron said.
A 2013 Oxford Economics study found the gaming industry contributed more than $672 million to the Kansas economy and supported an estimated 4,000 jobs.
The study examined the three state casinos: Boot Hill Casino in Dodge City, Hollywood Casino in Kansas City, and the Kansas Star Casino in Mulvane.
The bill’s supporters, such as Gavin Kreidler, a lobbyist for the Kansas Quarter Horse Racing Association, said the bill would level what is an unequal tax rate.
“The numbers have to be right to make it work,” Kreidler said.
Rep. Larry Hibbard (R-Toronto) offered support for the bill because a percent of the Woodlands Racetrack revenue would filter into the Eureka Downs racetrack as fare funds. He said it continues to operate as a training facility for horses that race in Oklahoma and Iowa but reaps no benefits from racing.
In recent years, there has been a debate about whether horse racing is a dying industry. The Jockey Club reported 41,000 thoroughbred races in 2014, a decline of 30,000 since 1988.
On the other hand, the sport’s supporters say the sport is growing, just not in Kansas. The Kentucky Derby reported the second highest attendance in 2014 at about 165,000. The highest was reported in 2012.
Regardless of whether the industry is in national decline, Kreidler and Fitzgerald said returning horse racing to Kansas would provide part-time and full-time jobs that would benefit the state’s economy.
If the bill passes favorably, Fitzgerald said it doesn’t guarantee a grand opening — the possibility only makes it feasible.
Starlet said traveling to compete is inevitable, but she wants to see the industry she loves return to the state she loves.
“It would just bring our money back home,” Starlet said. “It would bring us back home.”
Fitzgerald said there has been no movement on the bill as other controversial topics such as the state budget have been prioritized at the end of the session. There is possibility for discussion after April 26.
Amelia Arvesen is a University of Kansas senior from San Ramon, Calif,. majoring in journalism.