By Michael Bradwell

Business editor

mbradwell@observer-reporter.com

Two men involved with harness racing at The Meadows Racetrack & Casino told the House Appropriations Committee Tuesday that revenue from slots gambling at the North Strabane venue has vastly improved the quality of racing and size of purses over the past year.

The turnaround also has improved the lot of many local people working in the industry, they said.

Kim Hankins, executive director of The Meadows Standardbred Owners Association, and Randy Bendis, owner of Bendis Stables at The Meadows, were the first two citizens to testify before the committee, which launched three weeks of hearings into the state's proposed 2008-09 budget on Tuesday.

Hankins and Bendis addressed their comments to a hearing on Gov. Ed Rendell's recommended $34.7 million budget for the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, which regulates the implementation and operations of slot machine gambling. Their comments were televised live on the PCN network.

State Rep. Dwight Evans, D-Philadelphia, the committee's chairman, said for the first time, the committee is inviting citizens and community leaders to testify on the budget hearings as an effort to demonstrate "why we do what we do in terms of policy" for the various operations of state government.

"When we started out (with gaming legislation), we started out on the basis of helping out breeders and racetracks," Evans explained.

According to Hankins, The Meadows Standardbred Owners Association is a 650-member organization that includes owners and trainers. Those members employ about 300 grooms, he said, bringing total employment at the local track to 1,000 people.

Hankins said passage of Act 71, which legalized slots gambling in Pennsylvania and included provisions for portions of gaming revenue to be spent on horse-racing operations at the state's racetracks, is reviving The Meadows track in a variety of ways.

In January 2007, Hankins said, the nightly purse for Meadows racing was about $45,000. After Millennium Gaming took over The Meadows, it provided a loan to the horsemen that helped to increase the nightly purse to $65,000. When the casino began operations in June, purses jumped to an average of $85,000 per night, and the average now stands at $130,000, almost triple what it was before slots began generating revenue.

Hankins also said the horsemen see another purse increase coming in May or June.

The big increase in racing also has enabled Hankins' association to put $500,000 into a retirement fund for its drivers and trainers. He said grooms are now able to afford health insurance through the association, enabling them to drop coverage that was provided by the state at taxpayers' expense.

The increased activity at The Meadows racetrack also is rippling through the area's agricultural economy, with bigger demand for veterinarians, feed and boarding facilities. He said the number of new farms dedicated to resting and rehabilitating racehorses has increased dramatically within a 30-mile radius of the track.

Bendis told the committee that with the racing business in decline for at least a decade, most horse-related businesses at the track either barely managed to eke out a living or simply went out of business.

"For the past 10 years, we just got by on revenue streams that were just enough to tide us over," Bendis said, adding that 2007 was a turnaround year for his business.

"Without the legislation, I fear we would have been out of business," he said. "I couldn't give a raise for the past three years; this year, I gave all of my employees a 25 percent raise."

Hankins said the revival of harness racing at The Meadows is being duplicated at Chester Downs and Pocono Downs. The slots revenue is enabling those tracks to successfully compete with tracks in other states that have slots gambling.

"Pennsylvania is on the cusp of becoming a leader in harness racing," he said.

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