New Jersey governor issues pocket veto on racing-subsidy bill

Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey has issued a pocket veto of a bill passed early this year that would have directed $10 million in annual subsidies to Thoroughbred purses from 2025 to 2029, but racing officials said they were confident that the bill would find support in the current legislative session.

The bill was passed by the Senate on Jan. 8 by a vote of 35-1 in the final days of the 2023-24 lame-duck legislative session, which has since ended. Late in 2023, the House passed the bill by a vote of 73-0.

Dennis Drazin, the head of the company that operates Monmouth Park under a lease with the state, said that Murphy explained to him that he issued the veto because it passed during the lame-duck session. The legislature has since begun its 2024 session with new lawmakers seated.

“Am I thrilled? No,” Drazin said. “But I trust the governor on this. He’s a friend of racing, he’s committed to racing, and he says that this is going to get done, just not in a lame-duck session.”

Thoroughbred and Standardbred racetracks in New Jersey have received $10 million each for purse subsidies over the past decade, under agreements that have typically been extended by the legislature. This year’s subsidy to each industry was granted through the budgeting process, and Drazin said the pocket veto will have no impact on the subsidies for this year.

Last year, Monmouth had $31 million in purses to distribute over a 51-day Monmouth meet and at an all-turf meet at Meadowlands that was scheduled for 10 days (only five days were run due to weather cancellations). The subsidy provided roughly one-third of that distribution.

The subsidy is considered critical in allowing Monmouth to keep its New Jersey-based horsemen at the track and in attracting shippers from neighboring states during Monmouth’s live meet, which runs from May until September. For the past three years, handle at Monmouth has posted gains, a signal, according to horsemen, that the subsidies are providing benefits to the state’s racing industry.

Drazin pointed to the overwhelming majorities that supported the bill in predicting that it will gain widespread support when it is re-introduced later this year. The lone holdout in the Senate was not re-elected.

“I don’t anticipate that it will have any problem passing in the regular session,” Drazin said.

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