Distribution of Racing Fees Gets Senate OK

              June, 1973
HREVEPORT JOURNAL, SHREVEPORT-BOSSIER CITY
From Louisiana Downs—
Distribution of Racing
Fees Gets Senate OK
By DARLENE SCHMALZRIED
Journal Capital Bureau
BATON ROUGE — Legisla-tion
to distribute about $3
million in annual revenues
from Louisiana Downs among
several Caddo-area colleges
and medical facilities passed
the Senate by a 36-0 vote late
Monday.
IT includes provisions for a
$6 million future bond issue
for the Confederate Memorial
Medical Center in Shreveport.
The bill is a compromise
version of bills offered by
Rep. Walter Bigby of Bossier
City and Sen. C. Kay Carter of
Shreveport, which has re-ceived
the approval of the
entire North Louisiana delega-tion
and Gov. Edwin W.
Edwards.
BEFORE IT GOT Senate
passage, however, the Senate
Finance Committees deleted a
provision tacked on in the
House that would have dedi-cated
$100,000 of the Louisiana
Dowtns racing fees to the
Department of Education for
the training of exceptional
children.
The compromise plan would
split the receipts from racing
fee among North Louisiana
colleges, Confederate Memo-rial,
the state general fund,
the Bossier Parish Police Jury
and Bossier City, only if the
future racetrack is incorporat-ed
into the city limits.
The bill must now get
concurrence from the House
in the deletion of the House
amendment, and then will go
to the governor for ibis si.gna-t
ure.
THE FIRST PRIORITY
dedication of Louisiana Downs
revenues would give approxi-mately
$250,000 to the State
Racing Commission for ex-penses.
The second priority
dedicates $25,000 to the Legis-lative
Council.
Third priority would be
$400,000 to the Bossier Parish
Police Jury, which could be
split equally between the
police jury and Bossier City,
if the racetrack is annexed to
the city.
Confederate Memorial
would get $475,000 as the
fourth priority for retirement
of a $6 million capital im-provements
bond issue to be
proposed next year.
THE $6 MILLION bond issue
would qualify the hospitol for
$12 million of matching feder-al
funds for major remodel-ing,
repairs and air condition-ing.
Fifth priority in the bill
would give $650,000 to the
colleges. This breaks down as
f o 11 o w s: $200,000 for LSU-Shreveport;
$100,000 each for
the LSU Medical School at
Shreveport and for Southern
University Shreveport; $50,000
each for Louisiana Tech Uni-versity,
Northwestern State
University, Grambling Col-lege,
Northeast Louisiana Uni-versity
ond Bossier Communi-ty
College.
The remaining revenues
would be divided equally
between the state general
fund and the Bossier Parish
Police Jury, again with the
provision that Bossier City
would get half the parish
aware if it annexes the
racetrack.