Rhetoric and emotion are racing at top speed in Pflugerville – where on Feb. 5, residents will vote to support or reject the Austin Jockey Club‘s bid to bring a horse-racing track to the northeast Austin suburb. Predictably, the quest to bring a herd of pfillies to town has earned both pfriends and pfoes – pitting neighbor against neighbor and property tax relief against wholesome pfamily pfun.
(Ed. note: Okay Jordan, cut it out.)
At direct issue is the AJC’s bid to develop a 200-acre pari-mutuel racetrack at the intersection of Pecan Street – Pflugerville’s main east-west downtown drag – and the future State Highway 130, on the town’s east side. The AJC holds a Texas Racing Commission Class 2 license (like Manor Downs, the second largest track facility allowed) to operate the facility. In 2000, the AJC (a partnership that includes Bryan Brown, CEO of the Retama Park track outside San Antonio) sought to build the track in Austin, off East Riverside, but in August the AJC revised that plan, filing its intent with the TxRC to locate in Pflugerville. The AJC proposes a $15 million track to host 20 live races each year and to simulcast races from around the country year-round.
In the first year of operation, the AJC expects to take in $35 million in bets on simulcast races and $3 million on live races – suggesting that the track itself is little more than an adjunct to the video gambling operation. To proponents, the AJC plan offers a way to offset high residential property taxes, create jobs, and establish an anchor for commercial development along the 130 corridor; to opponents, it promises traffic congestion, low-wage part-time jobs, the scourge of gambling, and not nearly enough tax relief to justify the grief.
To Cliff Avery, an 18-year Pflugerville resident, two-term council member, and former chamber president, the proposal is a “tremendous opportunity” to get the city’s taxes back in balance. “We’re overtaxed in Pflugerville. … We’re out of balance because we don’t have the commercial property,” he said. “We can seize the opportunity to lower our tax rate and become competitive with … other cities.” As Avery sees it, the track would boost the tax rolls without straining city services, provide the financial aid to widen Pecan Street, and ease the burden currently carried by single-family homesteads.
To others, like Bruce Wood, also a longtime resident and head of the track-opponents group Pflugerville Pfamilies Pfirst, the track is not in the city’s best interest – there’s the expected traffic congestion on Pecan, the only road for the racetrack and for the adjacent Northeast Travis Co. Metropolitan Park, and beyond that the infrastructure costs that he figures would end up being carried by taxpayers. Moreover, Wood is worried that the track would lead to increased crime, boozing and, of course, gambling – especially if the Legislature legalizes so-called video lottery terminals (a fancy name for video slot machines), which could be operated out of TxRC-licensed tracks such as the AJC.
Indeed, determined to legalize VLTs, the gambling lobby has been pumping cash into legislators’ pockets. According to Texans for Public Justice‘s latest “Lobby Watch” report, the Gov. Perry-appointed TxRC commissioners last summer approved AJC’s sale of shares to new owners – including Tack Development Ltd., which bought 10% and is controlled by realtor Tim Timmerman, who owns 1,000 acres of land in Pflugerville, including the proposed track site. The infusion of cash and connections was predictable to opponents. “We knew from the very beginning that these guys could outspend us 10-to-one,” said Wood. Moreover, he said, Pflugerville residents weren’t even aware of the proposal until August – two months after the Timmerman deal.
The perceived backdoor dealing has solidified the PPP’s opposition. The city council has heard public testimony for and against the plan. On Nov. 30, they voted to put the question to a nonbinding referendum, and on Dec. 28, Mayor Cat Callen announced a public debate. But Wood said Callen’s peremptory handling of the debate preparations – imposing an early date without effective consultation of the opponents – is a prime example of why PPP opposes the track. “If she wanted a big turnout, she went about it the wrong way,” Wood said. “We’d been after [a debate] for six months.” On Jan. 1, the PPP withdrew from the Jan. 6 debate. “The Mayor has launched a personal campaign to promote the racetrack that is undemocratic, heavy-handed, and tyrannical,” Wood said in a PPP press release. “[S]he has shown her total disregard for the people who elected her and support of the wealthy gambling interests.” Mayor Callen could not be reached at press time – although it should be noted that her elected position is without pay, and she also has a full-time job in the high tech industry.
Last month, the PPP filed a complaint with Gov. Rick Perry, alleging that the TxRC was breaking the law by allowing the transfer of the AJC license purchased from Longhorn Downs in 1989. Outside the debate on Jan. 6, PPP offered attendees copies of an Aug. 8, 2004, e-mail from Avery to Callen (headlined “Mr. Avery – ‘Hired Gun or Honest Citizen?'”), in which Avery expresses his initial reluctance to support the track proposal – apparently suggesting that Avery, too, had sold out to wealthy gambling interests. Avery counters that his “knee-jerk” reaction to the proposal was negative but that after hearing additional information he changed his mind. “I was afraid that it was going to go through without any public discussion – we now know that’s not going to happen,” he said. In fact, Avery thinks the opponents are overreacting. “I think a lot of these people are seeing guys in white shirts and black ties with bulges under their shirts,” when they think about a racetrack. “We’re not afraid of bars around here,” he said, and “except for the 15 to 20 days of live racing, [the AJC track] is really just kind of a big sports bar.”
Another public forum is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 20 at 7pm at Pflugerville Middle School (1600 W. Settlers Valley); the referendum election is scheduled for Feb. 5. For more info, see www.noracetrack.com and www.supportpflugerville.org.
This article appears in January 14 • 2005.