State fair commission meets on contract with Downs

November 09, 2011

the state fair commission is expected to vote today on whether to move forward with the contract at the downs. they've been hearing the proposal this morning... along with results from an audit taken by the legislative finance committee. danielle todesco has been listening in and is live with the latest. danielle? antoinette... first we heard those audit results... which for some commissioners came as a harsh surprise. the legislative finance committee has been looking at the books and money handling. they reported today that the state fair owes nearly 2 million dollars for risk management... and is in a quote "crisis mode". they also said that a lot of the problem was poor management in the fair, as well as poor enforcement of the current contract with the downs. they say the downs owes the state fair hundreds of thousands of dollars ....and that this contract negotiation-- which includes the new casino-- now feels rushed. but commissioner charlotte rode says this is minute thumbnail 12:30 pm something they can fix. You know it's intimidating to hear the volume of the problem, but it's not at all something that we can't handle as a team and I'm actually looking forward to working with the rest of commissioners and the legislature and our administration to solve those problems. now, if they decide against the contract with the downs, they can look into the other proposal set forth by laguna... or leave it up to the legislature to extend the current contract. we'll have the latest on the decision tonight at 5. live at i-40 and university,