Purchase The Preakness Spring, among other things, is the start of horse racing season. I am not a horse racing buff. I have only been to the Preakness once, though I have been to various tracks and always manage to watch the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness on television.

There is something about horse racing that captures the imagination. It is the combination of watching exquisite animals and the excitement of sport at its most basic level. A coach of mine once said racing is true sport, the rest are just games. Racing is competition in its purest form – the winner is the one that gets to the finish line first. There are no referees or umpires to affect the outcome; and no coaches that can make a difference in the last minute with a key time out or play calling. As an athlete, you have no teammates you cannot rely on.

The Preakness was a Baltimore and Maryland state treasure long before the Orioles and Ravens came along. But unlike those two teams which have beautiful stadiums to play in, Pimlico is a dump. It needs to go, but The Preakness must be preserved.

With Magna Entertainment, the owner of Pimlico, filing for Chapter 11, the Governor quickly secured passage of a bill giving the state eminent domain over The Preakness Stakes.

It now needs to take the next step. As important a symbol as The Preakness is to Baltimore and Maryland, the state should exercise eminent domain right away and take over operation of the track and The Preakness.

But the state shouldn’t stop there – it should build a new track downtown, near Camden Yards and near the Middle Branch and move the Preakness there.

Like Oriole Park, a state of the art facility could be built that is elegant and a pleasant place to be on a warm spring afternoon or summer’s night. Like the ball park, it could evoke the history of racing in Maryland. It could borrow from Saratoga with its pastoral feel and mimic Churchill Downs’ grandeur. It could be built to make smaller crowds enjoy the intimacy and the excitement of being close to the horses yet accommodate the large crowds that will come for the Preakness every year. Slots, which have had a hard time attracting interest from private investors, could be located there too. With Oriole Park and Ravens (does anyone really call it M & T Bank?) stadium, the new track would become the third jewel in Baltimore’s sporting crown.

Those in favor of a free market that keeps government out to the hands of private enterprise will yowl. Plus, they will say that horse racing is a dying sport and a certified money loser (all true).

Parents and community activists will say that the money spent on a new track would be better spent on schools (I don’t disagree).

But Camden Yards and the Ravens stadium are much more than places to watch games. They are symbols of a revitalized Baltimore and a source of pride to the community. And not insignificantly, they provide a lot of jobs in relation to the tourism and hospitality industry. It was Mayor and Governor Schaefer's vision that created those facilities. It is time to use that same boldness to save The Preakness by building a new facility.

A new track would fit that mold of public works projects that add to the City’s ambience and image. It would enhance the appeal of The Preakness which is losing its luster because Pimlico has become so seedy. And what of Pimlico? Tear it down and sell it to a developer for some other use that is more in keeping with the community where it is located.

My bet is that a new track will rekindle interest and excitement in horse racing. Where will the money come from you ask? The Preakness is a brand that has tremendous value. With that asset, we can figure it out.  10:07 AM •  3 Comments • Links to this post

Maryland's Ugly Earmarks The Maryland General Assembly just ended its annual session facing the prospect of having to address another $1 billion budget gap without the benefit of the $3 billion federal stimulus that helped it to avoid more drastic cuts.

Meanwhile, in the parallel universe of the U.S. Congress, the Baltimore Sun reports that Maryland’s Congressional Delegation has requested more than $1 billion “earmarks” funding for special projects in the state.

Maryland’s state lawmakers’ spending is held in check by the requirement to balance the state’s budget. Not so our folks in Washington. From the list of earmarks, it looks like some of the state’s members of congress have never met a program that they don’t think deserving.

Bringing money home to their districts is what congressmen do and it makes them friends. This can be a good thing especially in hard times when state funding isn’t available for otherwise deserving projects. There is something for everyone in these earmarks requests: those for the elderly, kids and education are mostly ok. But how do you justify $500,000 for the Cal Ripken Foundation for programs for disadvantaged youth? I don’t question that programs like this aren’t worthy, but should federal money be used to fund Cal Ripken’s foundation programs? No. Cal should ask his wealthy friends to support his programs, not the taxpayer.

But private companies and federal agencies? Not ok.

Many of the projects listed in Maryland’s congressional wish list have to do with military and national security projects. There is no doubt this is an important industry in our state. But you have to ask if they are so important, why they weren’t funded from the defense budget or other agencies with responsibility for these areas? The Sun article cited an appropriation request for a $60 million Cray computer for the National Security Agency. I don’t question that the NSA needs a Cray computer. But the NSA’s request was probably knocked out of the budget process because the Obama administration had higher spending priorities. So the NSA went to their congressman for an earmark to get around that.

At least the congressman making that request, Dutch Ruppersberger, sits on the House Select Committee on Intelligence so just maybe he knows something that Intelligence Chief Leon Panetta doesn’t. But what of John Sarbanes' $6.5 million earmark to a Columbia defense contractor for a “Seacatcher UAS Launch and Recovery System”. Maybe this is a good program and maybe it isn’t, but I am not sure that Sarbanes is in a position to know because he doesn’t sit on any committees that deal with military matters. Defense Secretary Gates just announced cuts to wasteful military programs. If the Seacatcher were a priority for the Defense Department I expect it would have been included in the department’s appropriation request.

I am all for federal spending in Maryland. Better the money come to Maryland than go to Montana. And, I am not picking on any of these congressmen in particular. Unfortunately, this is the way the game is played. As long as they can do it, they will.

But accepting business as usual got us where we are today. President Obama opposes earmarks as part of the Washington insider culture that needs to be changed (full disclosure: I did too when I ran for congress). Why? Plain and simple: there is too much temptation for favoritism, and there is too little oversight and accountability. Earmarks circumvent the appropriations process, and that’s the point.

As Congress plays with its earmarks, they should consider that maybe there isn’t a whole lot of difference between earmarks and the indiscriminate loans made by the financiers that got us into the current financial mess. The regulatory system failed the public and we are all paying for the consequences. The earmark addiction represents an abdication of the legislative process in favor of, well, favoritism.

In his inaugural address, the President said it was time for government to put aside childish things. The Gates defense budget shows that his administration is willing to make tough choices.

But it’s obvious that Congress can’t, and won’t give up its earmark toys. It’s going to be up to President Obama to take them away.  12:13 PM •  0 Comments • Links to this post