Racing commission needs transparent process

New Mexicans take great pride in traits such as grit, determination, fairness and each and every citizen doing their part to support themselves and their community, and the state as a whole. Even in these fractured times at the national level, our state leaders, regardless of party, promote their earnest public policy initiatives aimed to improve the daily life of their constituents and the citizenry of our great state. 

Sadly, to the detriment of our state, this collective spirit is being blatantly ignored by the New Mexico Racing Commission (NMRC). 

Most readers are likely unaware of this rogue regulatory body. Constructed to oversee horse racing in our state, the Racing Commission wields the power to make unilateral decisions that can result in hundreds of millions of dollars spent and lost, hundreds of families left searching for jobs, and rewarding political insiders with valuable racing and affiliated casino licenses. 

This may sound like a made-for-TV-movie, but unfortunately it is all too real. Unbeknownst to anyone not deliberately following the day-to-day activities of an obscure government agency, the NMRC quietly opened a process in October to allow the owner of SunRay Park & Casino in Farmington, Paul Blanchard — Chairman of the Board of Regents for the University of New Mexico and major political donor — to just close up shop and move his casino to Clovis. The decision could be finalized as soon as the end of this week.

No bother, right? SunRay has only been operating for over 25 years, employs hundreds of local residents and supports thousands of other jobs in the area and is also an economic engine for the community in and around San Juan County. Racing and gaming at SunRay is thriving so the obvious decision is to … move the whole operation 400 miles east to the border of Texas? 

This doesn’t feel like earnest public policy to us. 

Fortunately, leaders in San Juan County and the people of Farmington have rightly raised their voices. So too have the tribes and other racing operators. They’ve reminded the NMRC that they have twice over the last 15 years run a transparent process to bid for a new racing and gaming license in Clovis. Both times, they decided not to award the license, despite some bidders willing to spend hundreds of millions for the right to build a new racino in Clovis. 

Yet, this time, Mr. Blanchard offers to move his existing casino to Clovis — crippling the community of Farmington — and the NMRC is just going to rubber stamp everything? 

There is nothing fair or earnest about this process at all. 

The citizens of Farmington, Clovis and our great state deserve transparency from our government, whether they be elected officials or unelected bureaucrats employed with our tax dollars. If the racing commission is so certain that a new racetrack and casino in Clovis would benefit New Mexico, they should run a transparent bidding process like they’ve done before rather than hand the license to a political insider. 

Anything less is wholly unacceptable and flies in the face of the earnest public policy initiatives our constituents expect and deserve.