Race Tracks not ready to celebrate tax ruling just yet

Representatives of Iowa’s race tracks were reluctant to celebrate their court victory after Republican legislators threatened to take the 112-million dollars in back taxes out of the tracks’ hides. Steve Roberts, a lobbyist for the Prairie Meadows Race Track and Casino, offered measured comments about the court ruling. Roberts, who is also legal counsel for the Iowa Gaming Association, says now there’s an opportunity for the industry and state officials to sit down and work out a new taxing structure that’s “fair and equitable” and meets the Supreme Court’s guidelines. Craig Schoenfeld, a lobbyist for the Dubuque Greyhound Park and Casino, says Dubuque cannot operate if the state tax is 36 percent.Schoenfeld says his clients hope tax parity among all gambling operations will be at the forefront of discussions in the Legislature. Schoenfeld says taxing Dubuque and the other two race tracks “out of existence” isn’t beneficial to the state treasury or to the cities in which those tracks are located. House Republican Leader Chuck Gipp of Decorah says he’s “outraged” that the race tracks even filed the lawsuit since they accepted the higher tax rate in 1995 in return for permission to put slot machines on their properties. Roberts, the lobbyist for Prairie Meadows, sees things differently.Robert says the higher tax rate for the tracks went in a 1995 bill as “almost a joke” and there was “the feeling” among gambling advocates that legislators would later make the tax rate “more reasonable.”