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The Preakness: Just another Maryland welfare program?
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Sometimes I get so irritated with politicians and the expansion of the welfare-warfare-police state that I go through spells where I refuse even to watch the news or listen to anything but music on the radio.
Perhaps that explains how I missed the story about how Maryland's fascist governor, Martin O'Malley, recently signed legislation giving the state (illegitimate) authority to seize the Preakness Stakes and Pimlico racetrack from its bankrupt owner, by eminent domain if necessary, in order to keep the annual horse race instate. (I inadvertantly saw an ESPN Outside the Lines broadcast about it yesterday.)
The governor and Democratic leaders in Annapolis say the state needs broad powers to ensure that the second jewel of the Triple Crown continues running at Pimlico Race Course. The track's owner, Magna Entertainment Corp., wants to auction off its Maryland assets - including Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park - under federal bankruptcy proceedings.
Lawmakers passed O'Malley's bill over the warnings of Republicans who said the move threatened private-property rights. If Maryland wants to buy Pimlico and keep running the Preakness, it should compete in the marketplace with other bidders, Republican critics said.
Does the governor plan to use this property to build additional highways or schools? Nope. While that would be an abusive (if legal) measure in itself, it would at least adhere to the rationale governments usually offer when they want to confiscate private property.
However, instead of merely overregulating Maryland's horse industry -- say, any chance oppressive taxes and gambling regulations have anything to do with the track's demise? -- O'Malley now wants to force taxpayers to subsidize an enterprise he's helped to drive out of the state in the first place.
I am shocked -- shocked! -- that Maryland ranks so pitifully in personal and economic freedom.
